


Ms. California

by mylopedia



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: F/F, High School AU, I got the title from a beach bunny song, Lesbian AU, Lesbians, Multi Chapter, but the first several chapters are a lot of slow burn/fluff, crystal is an art kid and gigi is the head cheerleader, crystal is kind of oblivious and gigi has a tough exterior but is secretly a huge softie, it takes place in the 1990s, there will be smut eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:01:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 41,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23864938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mylopedia/pseuds/mylopedia
Summary: Crystal moves to Los Angeles from Missouri and meets Gigi Goode, captain of the varsity cheer squad. Queue the 1990s lesbian high school AU that absolutely nobody asked for.
Relationships: Crystal Methyd/Gigi Goode, Gigi Goode/Crystal Methyd, Jackie Cox/Jan Sport, Jan Sport/Jackie Cox
Comments: 139
Kudos: 417





	1. Chapter 1

The first time Crystal sees Gigi is on her first day of senior year at Fairfax High School. She’s just moved from a small town in Missouri to Los Angeles with her family and starting over is daunting. 

The second she enters the campus, she feels intimidated - it’s at least three times the size of her high school back home. She knows nobody; she is completely and utterly alone amongst her peers, who seem to be mostly chatting amongst themselves in groups. It’s Crystal’s senior year and she knows she should be looking forward to all of the so-called “high school experiences” that are surely to come this year, but all she can think of is how much she wishes it were all over. 

Crystal looks down at the somewhat crumpled piece of paper in her hands, examining her schedule. It’s going to be a pretty simple year, she decides, after realizing she only has five classes, one of which is advanced drawing and painting. Crystal is an art kid through and through. She looks the part - always wearing quirky combinations of bright colors and unconventional, wacky patterns - acts the part, and has the talent to match her aesthetic. 

Crystal begins looking for her first period classroom - art, thankfully. An easy way to start the day, she thinks to herself. Although she can see her class is supposedly held in room A12, she can’t find the building for the life of her on the huge campus. She’s sure that she looks impossibly lost and frazzled, and she starts to panic as she notices that the hands on her watch are slowly ticking closer to eight.

Apparently, someone else notices her alarmed expression too. 

“Are you lost?” a voice calls out from behind Crystal. 

“Um… yeah, I think I am,” Crystal replies, turning around. When she sees the person the voice belongs to, her nerves override her brain. The girl has shoulder length blonde hair and the most strikingly blue eyes she’s seen. She’s dressed like someone out of the magazines Crystal used to read; a short red dress clings to her long legs and Crystal can’t help but notice the pair of blush pink heels she’s chosen to accessorize the outfit with. Crystal thinks that she belongs on a runway or a movie set or at a photoshoot, not on a high school campus. She’s tall, she’s thin, she has full, pillowy lips, and a cute button nose; a girl that looked like that wouldn’t have made a point of reaching out to a stranger at her old high school. 

“What classroom are you looking for?” the girl asks, approaching Crystal. 

“A12,” Crystal chirps, sure she’s sounding as nervous as she looks.

“Oh, you’re an art kid. Well, it’s right up that flight of stars,” the blonde motions to her right. “Are you new?”

“Is it that obvious?” Crystal jokes, trying to hide how flustered she is. 

“Just a bit,” the other girl cracks a smile. “I’m Gigi.”

“Crystal.”

“Well, maybe I’ll see you around, Crystal.”

Gigi walks off, leaving a stunned Crystal in her wake. As soon as she can calm her thoughts, she walks towards the flight of stairs.

She makes it to her first period class with five minutes to spare, and upon realizing she’s the first student to enter the spacious classroom, she makes her way to the front. Crystal elects to sit front and center, deciding that if nothing else, it will make her noticeable to other students and hopefully help her make some friends.

Students start trickling in one by one and filling out the classroom. Most choose to sit as far back as they can, probably to avoid being called on or so they can text without being noticed. Crystal silently prays for someone to sit next to her so she doesn’t look like the loner new kid. 

Her wish is granted when a girl with long, black hair wearing a pair of glasses with thick frames elects to sit next to her. Crystal, being somewhat extroverted - and desperate to make friends at her new school - introduces herself. 

“Hey, I’m Crystal!”

“Jackie,” the girl smiles. “Nice to meet you,” she says, extending a hand. 

Crystal suppresses a smirk at the formality of the gesture; it’s endearing. 

“Nice to meet you, too! How long have you been taking art?” Crystal asks.

Their conversation is interrupted by their teacher - who introduces herself as Ms. Velour - beginning the class. Crystal and Jackie both listen attentively to the bald woman with bold make-up as she reviews the course syllabus. 

Ms. Velour suddenly stops her lecturing and Crystal hears the door to the classroom open and close in succession. She twists around, partially out of curiosity to see who’s coming in so late, and partially because every other student is too. 

It’s Gigi. 

She makes a beeline for the only open desk in the back right corner. “Ms. Goode, thank you for joining us,” Ms. Velour says in an annoyed tone. 

Gigi doesn’t answer, and when Crystal tries making eye contact, Gigi ignores her. 

First period flies by, and even though Crystal would have loved to catch up to Gigi after class, Gigi seems to have sped out of the classroom. Crystal finds out she and Jackie both have second period - AP English - together anyways, so the two make their way to the classroom across campus. 

“So, that Gigi girl…” Crystal asks her potential new friend in a somewhat questioning tone. 

“Gigi? Well, there’s a lot I could say but I guess I’ll just stick with the super simplified version of it. She’s a junior and the head of the varsity cheer squad, she’s the resident “cool girl”, if you know what I mean. I’ve had art with her every year, and she likes to pretend she’s above it all.”

“Above it all?” Crystal questions - that definitely wasn’t the feeling she got from Gigi earlier. 

“Oh yeah, definitely. I mean, she probably thinks of all of the art kids as weird losers. But she’s one of us - she just won’t acknowledge it or you you, unless she’s hurling insults at you with her posse of cheer girls.” 

Crystal refrains from commenting about her interaction with Gigi before the class. 

“Well, that sounds like something out of a bad 1980s high school movie,” Crystal laughs. 

“It kind of is - welcome to LA, Crystal,” Jackie jokes as the two walk into their second class. 

~

Crystal’s first day goes well, overall. She and Jackie are on the route to becoming fast friends, and the dark haired girl even offers to give her a ride home after class, which Crystal appreciates.

The next morning, Jackie picks Crystal up and introduces her to her friend, Jan. The two seem a bit touchy; there are many fleeting glances and subtle touches between them.

The trio arrive to school ten minutes early, after picking up coffee. Jan is bright and bubbly and kind and Crystal immediately adores her; much like herself and Jackie, they hit it off instantaneously. 

Jan hugs Jackie goodbye, and plants a kiss on her cheek, eliciting Jackie to turn a shade of light pink. Crystal doesn’t question it. 

“Jan’s really cool,” Crystal says to Jackie as they make their way to first period together. 

“Yeah, isn’t she?” Jackie grins. “We’ve known each other since middle school.”

“Those kinds of friendships are always the best, I had a few friends like that back home in Missouri,” Crystal recalls. 

“Oh, well… I wouldn’t say we’re friends,” Jackie stutters. 

“You seemed pretty close,” Crystal says, perplexed. 

“Uh, yeah, we are,” Jackie says expectantly. 

The pair are silent for thirty seconds as Crystal tries to understand what Jackie is insinuating. 

“Okay, I don’t get it,” Crystal admits. 

“We’re like, girlfriends,” Jackie half-whispers. “But you can’t say anything. Please do not say anything.”

“Oh, yeah. I guess I should’ve picked up on that,” Crystal sighs internally at her own obliviousness. “And I won’t - your secret’s safe with me.”

“Thank you. I mean, it’s just a bit weird because Jan is on the cheer squad and if anyone finds out, she’ll basically become a pariah - both for being bisexual and for dating someone like me.”

“It’s Los Angeles and it’s 1994 - do people still really care about that here? And what do you mean, ‘someone like you’” Crystal asks, somewhat shocked. If there was one thing she was expecting to be different in Los Angeles, it was the sociocultural climate.

“Most of the kids at this school come from money - rich, white families. Republican families,” Jackie exhales. “Which also means they’re not too fond of me - an out-and-proud Persian lesbian.”

“That’s stupid,” Crystal states. 

“We can agree on that,” Jackie sighs. 

The pair sit down together, in the front of the classroom again, and talk about their art - what they like painting, their favorite painting music, their current works in progress.

Class starts and to Crystal’s dismay, she doesn’t see Gigi - until she hears the door quickly open and close fifteen minutes later.

Gigi arrives late again. This time there are no seats left in the back, and she’s forced to make her way to the front of the room. Crystal barely notices that someone is sitting beside her until the scent of Chanel perfume floods Crystal’s senses. 

Crystal is greeted with the same bright blue eyes she was previously entranced by. 

Disregarding a suspicious look from Jackie, Crystal smiles at Gigi.

“Hey! Thanks again for helping me get here the other day.”

Gigi, unlike the day before, gives her a tight-lipped smile. “No problem.”

“Your make-up looks really nice today!” Crystal continues on, admiring Gigi’s dark lips, sparkling magenta eyeshadow, and long eyelashes..

“Thanks.”

Crystal notices a difference in the Gigi she met and this Gigi - she knew it didn’t mean much because she’d barely interacted with the girl, but she feels strangely compelled to get to know her. There was something about her that was intoxicating. 

Before Crystal could continue talking, the teacher shoots her a look, effectively silencing her. 

~

Crystal is on her own after class; Jackie is meeting Jan to do god knows what. She decides to use Jackie’s lack of presence as an excuse to talk to Gigi again. Class ends and Crystal trails behind Gigi, who once again darts out of the door. 

“Hey, wait, Gigi!” Crystal yells, partially expecting the tall girl to continue walking quickly down the hill. 

She doesn’t. She spins around, and crosses her arms. “Yes?”

“I need help finding my English classroom. Jackie showed me where it was yesterday, and I forgot.”

Gigi rolls her eyes; Crystal figures her feigned ignorance is fairly easy to see through. 

“You do? Again?” Gigi says in a monotone voice. 

“Okay, I’ll admit that was pretty lame,” Crystal tries to lighten the mood. “I don’t know, you seem really cool, and I guess I was wondering if you’d want to grab lunch today? I’m new, I don’t really have friends here yet.”

Gigi’s expression turns from annoyed to something resembling concern. Her eyes dart around before motioning for Crystal to follow her back up the hill, towards the secluded side of the art building. 

“I don’t know what Jackie told you about me, but I can’t be like that. Especially not with you.” 

Crystal arches an eyebrow. “I don’t get it.”

“Come on. Jan tells Jackie everything, don’t play dumb, please. Class starts in…” Gigi checks her pearl-colored watch, “five minutes and I don’t have time to spell it out for you, new girl.”

“I’m not,” Crystal shrugs. 

Gigi lets out a muffled groan. “Sure you’re not. Okay, well, why don’t you just ask Jackie about me, then?”

Crystal doesn’t want to admit that she already has. 

“Um… okay. So that’s a no for lunch then, I’m guessing?” Crystal asks. 

Gigi’s facial expression indicates that she, under her rock-hard exterior, genuinely does feel bad. She opens her mouth and pauses, as if she’s trying to figure out the right thing to say. “Not lunch… and not at school. What are you doing on Friday night?”

“Um, nothing probably. New kid syndrome,” Crystal jokes, trying to break the tension. 

“Ask Jackie for my number. If she doesn’t have it, Jan does.” 

Gigi is gone as soon as she finishes her sentence, and Crystal is confused. Gigi seems to have some connection to Jackie - Jackie hadn’t mentioned that in the slightest. Second, she seems to think that Crystal has some hidden motive, one completely unbeknownst to her. Crystal can’t even begin to fathom what’s going on in the blonde’s head. She just wants friends and Gigi seems nice - and she’s stunning. But that’s aside from the point. Crystal snaps out of her thoughts, realizing she needs to make it to AP English in less than three minutes. 

She lets it go, and sets off to her next class, intending to tell Jackie everything. Gigi perplexes her.

~

“She wants to what?!” Jackie exclaims once class is over. “She wants to hang out, outside of school, with you?!”

“Yeah, I mean, I think so. It seemed like she wanted to spend time with me,” Crystal says. “She also kind of made a comment about you and Jan - she knows you’re close with her. Does she know about you two?”

“Yeah, well, it’s not like I’m all for outing people, but I guess if she’s going to be so bold - Gigi and I had a thing during her freshman year - my sophomore year. She’s the only one who knows about Jan - they keep each other’s secret.”

“Wow,” Crystal mused. “I don’t even know what to say.”

“It’s all very dramatic,” Jackie sighs. “I don’t like Gigi very much - not anymore at least. She’s changed a lot. I mean, she won’t be seen with me because I’m out, even though I’m dating her best friend, and she was clearly ignoring you in front of everyone because you’re gay,” Jackie rambles.

“Oh, I’m not - I mean, I’m supportive of all of that but I’m like, I’m not gay,” Crystal says, turning bright red. 

“Oh,” Jackie looks confused. “But you’re going on Friday?”

“Yeah?” Crystal says inquisitively. 

“I mean, I don’t want to speak for Gigi, but if you asked her to get lunch, she probably thought you were trying to flirt. And I think suggesting Friday was her way of showing she is interested,” Jackie explains. 

Crystal realizes she’s a little bit oblivious; she’s embarrassed. Growing up in a small town in Missouri rendered her unable to read the situation; it’s not like gay people ever tried to secretly date there. She didn’t even know if gay people lived in Missouri. 

“Well, shit,” Crystal inhales deeply. 

“Are you gonna go?”

“Yeah, I mean… Maybe we can be friends, or something,” Crystal hopes aloud. “Oh, and on that note, I need Gigi’s number - she told me to ask you for it.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe she was infatuated with GiGi, afterall. But that didn’t make her gay or anything. She admires GiGi because she’s pretty, because she’s nice (sometimes), because she’s popular, because she has the body of a goddess…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have way too much free time on my hands and absolutely no drive to do my college coursework with everything that's going on because of COVID-19, so here's chapter two. Feedback is greatly appreciated, especially since it's my first fic! :-) Hope you all enjoy!

Crystal elects to walk home after school, waving goodbye to Jackie and Jan as they drive past her on the sidewalk. She needs time to think; to think about what to say to Gigi, to think about what Jackie told her, to think about her own intentions. She wonders when she should call, and what she should do if someone other than Gigi picks up the phone. Calling immediately after arriving home would be too soon, Crystal decides. Calling between the hours of five and six wouldn’t work either, she thinks, because most people are eating dinner. So, she decides to call at seven. Crystal doesn’t understand why she’s overthinking this. It’s a phone call - it’s not like she’s never made a call to a friend’s house before. 

But, Jackie did say that Gigi might have given Crystal her number on the premise of setting up a date. It all feels very overwhelming to Crystal; a few boys she considered friends were interested in her back home, and every time she found out about it, she would cease contact. Their interest made her uncomfortable, so why didn’t she feel like that about Gigi? Shouldn’t she feel the same level of discomfort towards the situation? Maybe it’s because Crystal doesn’t know for sure that Gigi is into her like that - Gigi could just want a friend in art class, but be too concerned with her self-image to hang out with Crystal at school. The strangest thing about the situation, however, is that even if it was a date, Crystal realizes she still wants to go hang out with Gigi. She tells herself it’s because she can always just say she didn’t know, and that she just wants to stay friends. That leads her back to square one: why doesn’t the idea of Gigi liking her make her uncomfortable? 

She arrives home at three thirty. Both of her parents are still at work, so she pulls her house key out of her backpack and unlocks the door. She’s somewhat thankful that both of her parents are gone; as close as she is with them, she needs space to think. And aside from that, like most of the people from her hometown, her parents aren’t wildly accepting of gay people. Thankfully, there is one person she knows she can get her thoughts out to. 

Crystal walks up the stairs and opens the door to her bedroom. It’s still filled with boxes yet to be unpacked, and her walls are a pasty yellow color; the previous inhabitant clearly didn’t have much of an eye for interior design. She knows she needs to unpack to make the room feel like home, but she hasn’t been able to bring herself to do much other than tack up a few pictures of her best friends to her wall and place her white bedspread - adorned with geometric shapes and squiggles - on her mattress. 

She grabs the bright purple cordless phone her parents gifted her for her eighteenth birthday and flops down onto her bed. She begins dialing her best friend’s number. She has it memorized; she’s been calling her every day since she moved.

“Hello?” Crystal recognizes her best friend’s light, airy voice on the other side of the line. 

“Hey, Heidi!” Crystal smiles. 

“Hey, girl! How are you?” 

“Good! Well, for the most part, I’m good. I miss you!” Crystal says. 

“I miss you too! School sucks without you, there’s nobody to pass notes with in math anymore,” Heidi jokes. 

“I wish I was back home,” Crystal mutters. “Everything is weird here and I feel so out of my element.”

“What’s going on, girl?” Heidi asks. 

“Oh… I don’t know. You know Jackie, my friend from art that I told you about?”

“Mhm.”

“Well, she told me she has a girlfriend -”

“She has a girlfriend?! As in, she’s gay?!” Heidi interrupts.

“Yeah, but that’s not really the point, I mean, I don’t care about that. Anyways,” Crystal continues, “she was telling me about how her girlfriend is on the cheer team with Gigi, the one that helped me find my art class.”

“Okay, yeah…” Heidi says curiously. 

“Well, Gigi is like, apparently not just into guys, she’s into girls.”

“Is that all?” Heidi asks. 

“Well, no, not really…” Crystal trails off.

“What is it?”

“Uh, Jackie seems to think that Gigi thinks I asked her on a date,” Crystal explains. 

“Seriously?! Did you?! Oh my lord!” Heidi exclaims. 

“No, I definitely did not!” Crystal counters, defending herself. “I asked if she wanted to eat lunch with me, and she said no because she’s popular or whatever. But then, she was like, ‘We should hang out tomorrow, ask Jackie for my number’”, Crystal mimics Gigi’s somewhat monotone voice. 

“And you did?”

“And I did,” Crystal confirms. “So now, I guess I might be going on a maybe-date with the head cheerleader tomorrow.”

“So, you’re gay now?” Heidi questions. Crystal knows that she doesn’t mean anything rude by it, but she can’t help but roll her eyes. 

“No, I’m not. I just want to be her friend. I think she’s cool. She’s kind of an enigma - she’s this cold, popular cheer girl, she’s in advanced art, she dresses like a supermodel - and she looks like one - and she’s gay.”

“She sounds interesting,” Heidi comments.

“Right?! This is why I’m feeling perplexed. I don’t know for a fact that it’s a date, and I don’t think I’ll know if it is until it’s too late, but I really want to go. Like, even if it’s a date, I want to go and then just try to be friends?” Crystal says, unsure of herself.

“Okay, yeah, that’s… something.” 

“Yep,” sighs Crystal. “You think I should go?”

“If you want to,” Heidi responds passively, “but girl, it sounds like you’re infatuated with her - you barely know her and you’re going on and on about her.”

“I’m not, I’m just… interested.”

“Whatever you say, Crys, whatever you say.”

Crystal hangs up the phone, somewhat frustrated with Heidi. She needed clarity, not more confusion. Was she infatuated with Gigi? No, infatuation implied some level of attraction, and Crystal was not attracted to girls. 

Crystal feels like she’s trying to convince herself of something now. She’d said some variation of “I’m not gay” five times in less than three hours, both to herself and to other people. 

~

Crystal tries to take her mind off of the situation by doing homework. That’s how she knows she’s stressed - she usually saves homework for six in the morning before she leaves for school. Procrastination is her modus operandi; now she’s just procrastinating on something else.

She’s writing an English essay in her living room when she hears her garage door open - her mom must be home. Crystal puts down her pencil and stands up from the table, ready to help her mom make dinner before her dad gets home. 

“Hi mom!” Crystal greets her as she walks in the door. 

“Hey sweetie,” her mom hugs her, “how was school today?

“It was fine,” Crystal says, “nothing spectacular, but it was a good day!”

“Well, fine is better than bad!” Crystal’s mom shares her daughter’s positivity. “Ready to help with dinner?”

“Yeah, definitely,” Crystal grins, following her mom into the kitchen.

Crystal loves cooking - she’s not very good at it, but it’s fun. It’s always been her and her mom’s “thing”. 

Tonight, they’re making chicken tacos and grilled veggies. Crystal is in charge of chopping up the carrots and bell peppers - a difficult task to complicate. 

Crystal gets lost in her own thoughts as she chops and slices. She looks at her mother - a spitting image of herself. It’s like looking in a mirror that ages you twenty five years, Crystal thinks to herself. Her mom has the same long, dark, curly hair and thick eyebrows. They both have chocolate-brown eyes and the same goofy smile. They’re even the same height, both standing just above 5’5. They’re practically the same person - and Crystal is fine with that. Her mom is her favorite person, her best friend (though she’d never tell Heidi that), and her role model..

That’s why she decides to test the waters with the Gigi situation, struggling to push her thoughts about the younger girl out of her head. 

“So,” Crystal begins, “I think I’m going to hang out with a friend tomorrow night.”

Her mom turns away from the stove, shifting to look at Crystal from across the small kitchen. “Oh honey, that’s wonderful! You’re making friends already!”

“Yeah, I am,” Crystal tentatively starts. “Well…”

“Well what?” her mom asks, sensing the hesitancy in her voice. 

“I don’t know. I think the friend I’m hanging out with might think it’s a date, or something,” Crystal explains. 

“A date!” her mom beams. “Is he cute? Do you like him?”

“Um…” Crystal pauses, unsure of what to say next. She could tell her Gigi is a girl - it would take three seconds. She plays the conversation in her head, and it doesn’t go well. “No, I don’t think so. Not like that at least. But as a friend, they’re fascinating.”

“Hm. Are you still going to hang out with him?”

“Yeah, I think so - I don’t know, what would you do?” she asks. 

“I’d hang out with him,” her mom says decidedly as she spins back around to continue cooking the chicken. 

“Yeah?” Crystal questions. 

“I mean, your dad and I were friends before we fell in love,” Crystal can hear the smile in her mom’s voice. Crystal feigns a throwing up noise, eliciting a loud laugh from her mother. “How old are you again?”

Crystal giggles in response. “I don’t think it’s that kind of situation, mom. I don’t know.”

“Either way, honey, I don’t think it could hurt. Put your feelers out there! You might have a fun time as friends, or maybe,” she turns around again, and wiggles her eyebrows, “you’ll have a little more fun.”

Crystal snickers and rolls her eyes at her mom’s bad jokes - another thing they have in common. 

They continue cooking, making small talk about her mom’s day at work - she’s an elementary school teacher - or what classes Crystal hates - calculus, physics, and economics. They finish cooking around six, and her dad arrives home almost immediately after. 

“Hey dad,” Crystal smiles, greeting him with a hug. 

“Hi,” he greets her as he moves to kiss her mom on the cheek. “How was your day?”

“It was good,” Crystal responds, “What about yours?”

“Same old, same old,” he shrugs. Crystal is close with her dad - not as close as she is with her mom, but close nonetheless. He’s quiet compared to the two women he lives with, but his silence is kind and warm. 

“Crystal has a date!” her mom blurts, jokingly. 

“Mom, oh my god!” Crystal groans. She looks at her dad with an annoyed expression. “It’s not a date. We’re hanging out - as friends.”

Her dad guffaws as Crystal sticks her tongue out at her mom, and lets out a snort when her mom sticks her tongue out back at her. 

“Well, I’m hungry,” her dad claps his hands. “What’s for dinner?”

The family settles down shortly after, falling into a comfortable silence as they eat. The tacos, in Crystal’s opinion, are divine. The three of them all but shovel the food down. 

“Dinner was amazing - thank you both,” Crystal’s dad stands, clearing the plates off of the table. 

“It was all Crystal,” her mom jokes. 

“Well, I’m on dish duty tonight,” her dad says.

“Great,” Crystal says. “I need to make a phone call, like right now.” It’s nearing seven thirty, and if it gets to be too late, Crystal worries Gigi will think she forgot or won’t pick up because she’s busy. 

“Calling your date , Crys?” her dad pokes fun at her affectionately. 

“Maybe I am,” she turns and walks upstairs. 

~

Crystal inhales and exhales ten times in a row, trying to calm her nerves as she paces around her crowded little room. She’s staring at the piece of paper she wrote down Gigi’s number on like it’s going to burst into flames at any given moment. She bites her bottom lip, inhales deeply once more, and picks up the phone. Her fingers clammily press into the keypad, slowly but surely. Crystal puts the phone to her ear, hearing the dial tone. The anticipation is killing her - she begins counting the seconds it takes for Gigi to answer. 

She’s terrified.

One.

_ What if someone else picks up? _

Two.

_ What if this is a huge joke?  _

Three.

_ Why would she even want to hang out with me?  _

Four.

_ Let alone date me...  _

Five. 

_ Why do I want her to want this to be a date?  _

Six.

_ This is too much.  _

Seven. 

“Hello?” Gigi’s voice rings through the line.

Crystal hangs up suddenly, adrenaline coursing through her veins. She curses herself silently - what was that about? She couldn’t call back now, and she definitely couldn’t count on hanging out with Gigi anymore after that move.

And then her phone rings. 

“I GOT IT!” Crystal screams, hoping her parents don’t pick up the phone before she can collect herself. She lets it ring four times, and then picks up, still pacing. 

“Hello?” 

“Hi… Crystal?” Gigi asks. 

Crystal nods her head before realizing Gigi can’t actually see her. 

“Yep! It’s me, Crystal,” she stammers. She can feel her face turning bright red. 

“How’s your night going?” Gigi asks, making small talk. 

“Oh, good. I did homework and made dinner with my mom, nothing much. How’s yours?”

“Good,” Gigi says, “I just got home from cheer practice a few minutes ago.”

An image of Gigi wearing her cheer uniform - the little skirt and tight crop top - floods her mind. Her face heats up, and she tries to push the thought away. 

“Good timing, I’m glad I didn’t call earlier” Crystal remarks. “How was cheer practice?”

“It was fun. Coach is cracking down on us pretty hard, but I guess that’s to be expected.”

The line goes silent. Crystal counts to herself again - the two remain speechless for fifteen seconds until Crystal finds her voice. 

“So, Friday? Tomorrow?” 

“What about Friday?” Gigi counters coyly. 

Crystal takes the opportunity to make a joke.“Come on. Don’t play dumb, please,” she says the pharse in the same, high-pitched voice Gigi used earlier that afternoon. 

“Very funny,” Gigi giggles. “But seriously, what about tomorrow?”

Gigi clearly wants Crystal to initiate the discussion and Crystal realizes that the cheerleader may be just as nervous as she is. 

That thought calms her - kind of. 

“Um, do you wanna hang out?” Crystal questions, her breath hitching in her throat. 

Gigi takes a moment to respond - she says yes, resoundingly - and Crystal almost audibly sighs with relief. 

“I can pick you up at five, if that works for you?” Gigi says. 

“Yeah,” Crystal replies, thankful that the blonde can’t see what Crystal is sure is a huge, dorky smile on her face, “that sounds perfect.”

“Are you a fan of sushi?” Gigi asks. 

“I’ve never had it,” Crystal admits. 

“You’ve never had sushi?!” Gigi sounds shocked. “Well, that’s that, then! We’ll get sushi.”

“I can’t wait,” Crystal tries to keep the excitement in her voice to a minimum. 

“See you tomorrow, Crystal.”

“Bye, Gigi!” 

Crystal hangs up the phone, staring down at her hands. She should not have butterflies in her stomach right now - but there they are, fluttering around anyways, making Crystal feel like a hopeless mess. 

Maybe she was infatuated with Gigi, afterall. But that didn’t make her gay or anything. She admires Gigi because she’s pretty, because she’s nice (sometimes), because she’s popular, because she has the body of a goddess… 

Crystal exhales, falling face down onto her bed.

“What am I doing?” she wonders aloud to herself. 

~

Crystal thinks she’s answered her own question. It’s Friday morning and Crystal is waiting for Jackie and Jan to pick her up. She sits on her porch steps, pondering last night’s conversation with Gigi - more specifically, her feelings about said conversation. 

She’s attracted to a girl. 

She’s never even been attracted to a boy. How is that supposed to work? She feels completely and utterly lost. She doesn’t have any issues with gay people, but she admits to herself that being gay was a far-off, foreign concept; Crystal thought gay people were bad punch lines, characters in movies, lessons to learn from in church - they never actually existed.

Well, until she met Jackie. And Jan. And Gigi. 

Crystal sees Jackie’s car - a red Volkswagen - pull up into her driveway. She stands up from the porch and makes her way over, opening the back door. The sound of Ani DiFranco and Jan fill her ears - Crystal finds out quickly that Jan’s a theatre kid, so she loves singing, and that Jackie is obsessed with any and all queer female musicians. The melody of voices that she’s hearing is the result.

“Hey guys!” Crystal says, smiling. 

“Hey!” they say in unison, turning down the radio. 

“So, I hear a certain someone was given the number of one of my squad sisters?” Jan raises her eyebrows expectantly at Crystal. 

Crystal is shooting daggers into the back of Jackie’s head; she figured Jackie would tell Jan, but now she’s embarrassed. 

“Yeah…” Crystal trails off. 

“And? What happened?!” Jan exclaims. She’s excitable; Crystal would usually admire her exuberance, but right now, it’s overwhelming. 

“We’re getting sushi tonight.” 

“Oh, it’s a date-date,” Jan muses. “Jackie says you’re not into girls?”

“Um…” Crystal smacks her lips. 

“What do you mean, “um”? You told me you weren’t gay yesterday!” Jackie jumps in. 

“I don’t know… Guys, I really don’t know. This is so far out of my comfort zone,” Crystal explains, “I haven’t ever been interested in boys. I haven’t been interested in girls either, though - I guess because I didn’t think it was something I could do?” Crystal feels her stomach drop - she realizes there’s a very real possibility that she is, in fact, attracted to Gigi - that she’s not straight.

“Oh, Crystal,” Jan looks at her sympathetically, “I understand, I felt the same way when I met Jackie last year.”

“Yeah, and I felt the same way when I kissed a girl when I was ten,” Jackie half jokes. 

Crystal wishes she could be as positive about this as Jan, or as self-assured as Jackie. 

“I mean, I called her last night and hung up when she answered, and then she called back and it was like planes were taking off in my stomach. Fuck butterflies, it felt like I was going to explode for the whole conversation,” Crystal expresses her innermost thoughts to the couple, hoping for some kind of guidance. 

“I know it doesn’t help much, but we’re here,” Jan assures her. 

“It does help. It’s just weird, I think I’m going on a date - the first date I’ve ever been on - with a girl. With Gigi. It makes me nervous,” Crystal sighs. 

“That’s normal!” Jackie and Jan respond in unison. 

Crystal is suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude for the two - she’s known them both for less than five days, but she’s baring her soul and they’re being more compassionate than she would’ve ever asked for. 

“Thank you both, so much,” Crystal says. “I really appreciate it. I have no idea why this is so hard for me.”

They ride the rest of the way to school with the music blasting, and Jackie makes a joke that if Crystal is going to be gay, she’s going to have to learn the lyrics to at least three Indigo Girls songs and every single Ani DiFranco song. It makes Crystal laugh, and she hums along to the music, feeling content. 

~

The school day is a blur. Crystal steps out of the car, and Jackie and Jan both hug her, promising that she’ll be okay and telling her how much fun she’ll have with Gigi. 

Jackie and Jan kiss quickly before they part ways, and Crystal and Jackie walk to class, where Gigi is already sitting in the front row - a welcomed surprise. 

“Hey Gigi,” Crystal smiles, forcing her anxiety down. She has to pretend to be calm; she doesn’t want to scare the girl off. 

“Hi!” Gigi grins at Crystal. “Hey, Jackie.”

Jackie looks up from a book she’s already buried her nose in and looks absolutely shocked. “Oh, um hey, Gi.” 

“Crystal, I need to uh, grab your address,” Gigi hushes her voice, “for tonight.”

“Yeah, for sure,” Crystal agrees, reaching into her backpack for a piece of paper. She tears one out of her notebook, and scribbles down her address. For a split second, she considers drawing a little heart below it - her hands are faster than her thoughts, and she does it. She hands the paper over to Gigi, turning pink. 

“Thanks,” Gigi smiles, stuffing the paper into the pocket of her jacket. 

She looks amazing today - as she has every day that Crystal has seen her. She’s wearing a short, white dress, a washed out denim jacket, and a pair of strappy, light brown sandals. Her make-up is lighter than it has been before; her lips are painted a peachy pink color and she’s not wearing eyeshadow. 

Crystal is thankful she decided to wear something other than her usual plaid pants and t-shirt; she’s wearing a black mini-skirt with a tight purple t-shirt and a pair of Doc Martens. Her curly hair hangs just below her shoulders. 

Crystal can’t comprehend anything Ms. Velour says all class; she’s too busy stealing glances at Gigi and glaring at Jackie for making fun of her. 

Gigi actually says goodbye to Crystal - and Jackie - before she’s out the door this time, and Jackie tells Crystal that Gigi was looking at her all class long, too. 

Crystal blushes. 

AP English flies by, Crystal nearly falls asleep in calculus, doodles her way through physics, and zones out during economics. 

And then, the day is gone. 

Jackie drives her home, leaving Jan behind for a rehearsal. 

“Are you nervous?” Jackie asks. 

“Is that even a question?” Crystal chuckles. 

“You’ll be fine - she’s clearly pretty into you!”

“Yeah, I hope so,” Crystal remains hopeful. 

They drive in silence, and when Jackie drops Crystal off, she hugs her again, reminding her that if she needs anything at all to call her or Jan. 

Crystal nods, promising that she will. She waves at Jackie as the dark haired girl drives away, and walks up her porch. 

It’s three thirty - she has an hour and a half. 

She showers quickly, washing her hair with the shampoo that smells like lavender and honey. She dries off and stares into her closet, trying to piece together an outfit. She decides on a patterned dress - something she’d never usually elect to wear - and slips it on. It’s a cute dress; it’s mostly blue, but it’s checkered with red and black lines. The dress clings to her breasts and hips, to Crystal’s satisfaction. She decides to wear the same pair of boots she wore to school - Jackie did say that they were the gayest thing you could wear, minus a flannel. She brushes out her hair, knowing there’s no point in trying to style it - it’s thick and curly and won’t hold, no matter what she does. 

She spends the next thirty minutes on her make-up. She applies a light layer of foundation, curls her eyelashes (and puts on mascara for an extra touch), brushes on a smidge of dark blue eyeshadow, and chooses to wear a sparkly, clear-pink lipgloss. She’s satisfied with her appearance, and makes her way to her room. She writes a note to her parents, reminding them that she’s going out and will be back later. As she places the note on the kitchen counter, the doorbell rings. 

Crystal walks towards the door, and inhales shakily. 

_ Here goes.  _

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm working on chapter three already - thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crystal and Gigi go on their first date - it's even better than Crystal expects it to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! This took me longer to write than anticipated because my classes all of a sudden started ramping up. From now on, I'm going to plan on updating twice per week (most likely Wednesday and Saturday). I hope you all enjoy reading this! Any and all feedback is deeply appreciated. :-)

Crystal pauses before she places her palm - which has become oddly clammy - on the door knob. She takes a deep breath in and exhales before she opens the door. 

Gigi is standing on Crystal’s doorstep, and although Crystal was expecting the blonde to be there, she’s still taken back by her presence. She’s an absolute vision in pink, Crystal decides. She’s wearing a baby pink, satin dress that hugs her body, accentuating her small waist and petite figure. It falls just above her mid-thigh, and Crystal can’t help but notice that it makes her legs appear even longer than they usually do. Her blonde hair hangs in loose curls around her neck. Crystal’s eyes are drawn to the gold necklace that Gigi is wearing; it’s short and a charm with a cursive “G” hangs from it. 

“Hi,” Crystal says with a smile. 

“Hey,” Gigi greets. “You look really pretty tonight!”

Crystal can’t formulate an intelligible response. It feels like firecrackers were just lit off in her brain - _Gigi_ was calling _her_ pretty. So, instead, she looks around, hastily trying to think of something to say. 

“Is that your car?” Crystal asks, motioning towards the street, sure that her face is several shades darker than the pink of the dress that Gigi is wearing. 

“It is! Are you ready to get going?”

“Yeah, definitely,” Crystal replies, following Gigi down the steps of her porch. 

Crystal doesn’t think that she’s ever seen a more Californian car that the one Gigi owns. It’s a convertible and it’s a bright shade of magenta. From what Crystal knows about Gigi, it suits her well. 

Crystal opens the passenger door and settles herself in the seat. She’s never been in a convertible before; it seems very glamorous. 

“Oh, do you want me to put the top back up? The wind can really mess up your hair,” Gigi asks. 

“No, it’s totally cool - I’ve never rode in a convertible before. Do you have an extra scrunchie or something?”

“I should! Let me just check in my purse,” Gigi says as she begins rifling through her handbag. She pulls out a purple scrunchie, and hands it to Crystal. “Here you go!” 

“Thanks,” Crystal grins and begins tying up her hair. She watches as Gigi throws her own hair up into a high ponytail. 

Gigi starts the car, and Crystal soon realizes that Gigi was _not_ kidding about the wind. They drive relatively slowly at first - Crystal lives in a cul de sac - but when Gigi turns onto the main road, Crystal can barely hear herself think. The wind pounds in her ears and she can feel her hair flying everywhere, even from the confines of the scrunchie. She’s almost grateful for the noise because although she _wants_ to talk to Gigi, the nerves of being on a first date are getting to her. She has no idea what to say to her and she’s terrified that when she _does_ say something, she’ll say the wrong thing. Crystal doesn’t even know if she’s into Gigi _like that_ because Gigi’s a girl and Crystal still doesn’t know if she’s infatuated or confused or just _really_ wants to be the blonde’s friend. 

They’re on a date, so Crystal reminds herself that it isn’t the latter. She is, at the very least, somewhat infatuated with her. For whatever reason, it's hard for Crystal to admit that. 

Crystal tries to let her thoughts go and focus on the world around her; they’re flying down what appears to be the 101 freeway now. There are more cars here than she has seen in her lifetime. 

Crystal can’t tell how long it’s been, but eventually, Gigi steers them towards an exit. The wind slows, and Crystal’s heartbeat speeds up. The sound of the wind can no longer protect her from having to make conversation and she still doesn’t know what to say. 

“So, how are you liking Los Angeles so far?” Gigi asks. Crystal internally breathes a sigh of relief - at least Gigi initiated a discussion. 

“I like it a lot,” Crystal answers. “It’s very different from what I’m used to, but it’s not bad by any means. I’ve only been here for a handful of weeks, though.”

“Where are you from?” Gigi asks. 

“Missouri. Have you been?”

“No, I haven’t. Did you like it there?” Gigi questions.

Crystal pauses, needing to contemplate her answer. She’s never thought about whether or not she actually _liked_ Missouri - it was always just a permanent fixture in her life, a constant, a given. She’d never moved before she came to Los Angeles - not even from one house to another - so her opinions of it seemed almost trivial, because she’d be stuck there no matter what. 

“I don’t actually know,” Crystal admits. “It was really quaint and the people were nice, but I didn’t have anything else to compare it to. It’s hard to decide if you like something or not when it’s all you’ve ever known, you know?” 

“I get that. I feel the same way about Los Angeles most of the time,” Gigi agrees. 

The two sit in a comfortable silence for several minutes, until Gigi pulls into a parking lot. 

“We’re here!” she announces, parking the car. “Aren’t you so excited to try sushi?”

“I am,” Crystal confirms. “And also kind of nervous - eating raw fish seems kind of dangerous, doesn’t it?”

“I guess so, but I’ve been eating it since I was a little kid, so if you need proof that you won’t die or something, here I am,” Gigi laughs as she gets out of the car.

Crystal follows her to the entrance of a run-down looking building. Thankfully, the interior doesn’t match the exterior: it’s dimly lit, but nicely decorated. The walls are a deep red color, and there are pictures of what seem to be various sushi chefs in Japan hanging on the walls. Crystal notices that candles and flowers adorn the top of each table.

“Reservation for two under Goode,” Gigi tells the host at the front of the restaurant. 

“Right this way.” The girls follow him to a table in the back of the dining area; it seems almost secluded from the rest of the tables. “Your server will be with you shortly,” the host places two menus in front of them and quickly walks back to the front. 

“So, what do you usually order?” Crystal asks after looking through the menu. She doesn’t know what anything is. 

“I’m a big fan of the rainbow roll, the dynamite roll, and the spider roll. I can just order all three and we can share - they’re pretty filling.”

“Yeah, that sounds good to me,” Crystal agrees, closing her menu. 

“Was sushi not a big thing in Missouri?” Gigi asks. 

“Not so much,” Crystal shrugs. “But we had really great barbecue and burgers!”

“Interesting! What brought your family all the way to Los Angeles?” 

“My dad’s job - he works in finance. I don’t really know what he does, but it sounds important, so here we are! Have you ever moved?” 

“Nope, not even to a new house. My parents are pretty well-established here, and I guess I am too, so there’s been no reason to move,” Gigi replies. 

“Do you ever want to move?” 

“Yeah, I guess I do, someday. I have it pretty good here though, so I don’t know where I’d move to.”

“That makes sense,” Crystal nods. 

The waitress makes her way over, interrupting the conversation. Gigi orders, and Crystal is thankful that she doesn’t have to try to remember the names of the rolls. 

“So, you’re a senior right?” asks Gigi. 

“Yeah, I am.”

“Have you thought about college or anything?”

“It’s practically all I’ve been thinking about for the past six months,” Crystal jokes. “I’m waiting to hear back from NYU, The New School, and Pratt.”

“So you want to move to New York?”

“Ideally - that’s where all of the cool art stuff seems to be happening, anyways!”

“Do you want to be an artist?” the blonde inquires. 

“It sounds cliche, but I feel like I’m already an artist,” Crystal shares. “I just need to get the degree so I can say I have it, you know? It looks good for jobs and stuff, I guess.”

Gigi nods solemnly. “I wish I knew what I wanted to do. I guess I haven’t thought past high school much until now.”

Their food comes, and the pair are shaken out of their conversation.

“Okay, so, you should totally try the rainbow roll first…” 

~

If there is one thing Crystal knows, it’s that she does _not_ like sushi. And, if there’s another thing that Crystal knows, it’s that she _does_ like Gigi Goode. 

Crystal ate half of the three sushi rolls they ordered, with a smile on her face, so Gigi wouldn’t feel bad about suggesting it. She tells Gigi how much she _loves_ sushi, and agrees to try sashimi - which Crystal learns is just plain raw fish - at some point. 

Crystal is a picky eater, and she’s not shy about it. If she doesn’t like it, she won’t eat it. 

Unless it’s to save the feelings of a pretty blonde girl, apparently. 

“So, I don’t know if you have a curfew or anything, but there’s a movie showing over in West Hollywood that I’ve heard is pretty great,” Gigi tells Crystal as they walk back to the car. 

“My parents didn’t tell me to be back at a certain time, so I think I’m all good,” Crystal grins. She doesn’t know much about dating, but if Gigi wants to keep the date going, it must be a pretty good first date. 

The drive to West Hollywood goes by quickly - Gigi plays Ani DiFranco loudly, prompting Crystal to make a joke about how she must have inherited Jackie’s taste in music. 

“It’s not even a gay thing, I swear! It’s just _really_ good!” Gigi exclaims. 

It’s the first time Crystal has heard Gigi even indirectly refer to herself as “gay”; she doesn’t know why it feels like an important moment, but it does. 

The first thing Crystal notices about West Hollywood is that it’s very “out-and-proud”. Rainbow flags line the windows of the majority of the businesses and bars, and pride flags fly alongside American flags in all of the medians. She definitely hasn’t ever seen anything like this in Missouri; it’s completely new to her. 

“So, not to sound totally ignorant, but is this where all of the gay people live or something?” Crystal asks Gigi. 

Gigi giggles, “No, I wouldn’t say it’s where all of the gay people live, but it’s like… I don’t know, it’s a safe haven, I guess.”

“Do you go to a lot of the bars around here?” Crystal asks. 

“Well, they’re all age-restricted, so it’s kind of hard to get in. But off the record, I do have a fake ID. It’s pretty terrible, in all honesty, so I’m kind of counting down the days until I get it taken,” Gigi laughs. 

Gigi intrigues Crystal; she wants - needs - to know more. She’s so worldly compared to Crystal, and even though Crystal knows Gigi is only one year younger than her, she feels like she should have more life experience than the seventeen year old. 

“How did you get a fake ID? Do your parents know?” Crystal asks. 

“You have a lot of questions, Crys,” Gigi jokes, and Crystal blushes at the nickname. “I got it from a friend of a friend last year. My parents have no idea, they think I’m at Jan’s house or hanging out with the other girls from the squad when I’m out here.” 

“You’re adventurous. That would terrify me.”

“It’s not too scary, honestly,” Gigi parks her car alongside the curb. “It’s scarier being at school and carrying around the secret that I do.” 

“I could only imagine.”

The two exit the car, and Gigi locks it behind her. They begin walking down the sidewalk. 

“Are you out?”

Crystal’s mind goes blank - out as what? She doesn’t even know if there’s something to come out _as_ in the first place. All she knows is that she likes this whole “going on dates with Gigi” thing. 

Crystal shrugs, and tries to change the subject.

“How close are we to the theater? I need to use the restroom.”

“Three minutes, tops!” Gigi doesn’t seem to notice Crystal’s avoidance of the question, thankfully.

The movie theater is small and it looks old; it has a vintage charm to it. Gigi approaches the ticket booth. 

“Two tickets to _Go Fish_ please,” Gigi hands twelve dollars to the ticketer, and walks back to Crystal. “Here’s your ticket!”

“Do you want me to pay you back? How much was it?” Crystal grabs for her wallet. 

“No, don’t worry about it!”

“I feel bad, please let me pay you back,” Crystal insists. 

“You can pay for our next date,” Gigi casually throws the words “next date” around and it makes Crystal’s stomach tie itself up in knots. 

“Yeah,” Crystal stutters out, unable to think or speak clearly. 

Gigi agrees to save them seats while Crystal goes to the restroom. She makes her way into the single-stalled bathroom, and stares at herself in the mirror. “You’re gay!” she whispers to herself in an aggressive tone. “Gay, gay, gay, gay, _gay_ , and maybe only for Gigi, but you are at least kind of _gay_!” 

Saying it aloud makes her feel better; it’s as if a weight has been lifted from her shoulders. 

Crystal makes her way into the theater - it’s packed. She notices that the majority of the audience members are women, and visibly gay women at that. She sees women with short, buzzed hair, and others wearing acrylics and make-up. Some fall in between the categories of “masculine” and “feminine”. 

She finds Gigi sitting in the center of the back row. 

“Good seat selection,” she comments with a smile. 

Gigi opens her mouth to respond, but the lights dim and the movie begins. 

~

Crystal had no idea that they would be seeing a lesbian movie; she didn’t even know such a thing _existed_. She supposes she should have figured as much, considering they’re seeing the movie in West Hollywood and that she’s seeing it while on a date with another girl. 

The first time Crystal sees two girls kiss, her heart jumps out of her chest. It’s passionate, it’s sweet, it’s romantic, it’s… _kind of_ hot. She _kind of_ wants to kiss Gigi, but she pushes the thought out of her mind immediately, almost embarrassed to have thought it in the first place. Crystal looks to her side to see Gigi’s reaction. She can’t make out much in the darkness of the theater, but Gigi appears to have a visible smile on her face. 

Crystal finds her investment in the movie endearing. 

The movie continues on, but that kiss is burned into the back of her mind. She catches bits and pieces of the plot, but her mind keeps drifting to places she’d rather it not. 

_What would it be like to kiss Gigi? What would her lips taste like? How would they feel? What would her hair smell like?_

She’s only pulled out of her innermost thoughts when she feels a soft hand brush against her arm. She looks down at the armrest where Gigi has placed her hand just centimeters from her own. 

The armrest is small - small enough that Crystal assumes Gigi hadn't put her arm on it for comfort, because their arms are crammed together - and Crystal almost reaches out to grab Gigi’s hand. 

_Almost_.

Because Gigi does it first. 

Initially, it’s just two pinky fingers brushing against each other, and then Gigi is sliding her hand into Crystal’s palm with uncertainty. Crystal intertwines her fingers with Gigi’s, squeezing her hand to let her know that she _does_ want this. Crystal wants to glance at Gigi to see if she’s smiling - because Crystal definitely is - but she can’t bring herself to. 

The rest of the movie blows by. Crystal is distracted by the way Gigi’s hand feels in her own and how Gigi’s thumb rubs her finger in soft circles. 

When the movie ends, Crystal half expects Gigi to stand up and let go of her hand, reserving this particular activity for the darkness that the back of the movie theater provides them. 

But she doesn’t. She stands up, and Gigi and Crystal walk out of the theater hand-in-hand. 

“What time is it?” Crystal asks as soon as they’re out of the door. 

“Let me check my watch,” Gigi responds. 

Again, Crystal expects Gigi to let go of her hand to check the watch - it’s wrapped around her left wrist, the wrist of the hand that Crystal is holding - but instead she brings up their hands jointly to look at the watch. 

“It’s 9:15. Do I need to get you home?” 

“Probably soon, yeah, or my mom will start to think I’ve been kidnapped,” Crystal jokes. 

“Sounds good to me. We definitely wouldn’t want that!”

They walk to the car in silence. Crystal has butterflies in her stomach, in her head, in her hands, in her legs… her entire body feels fluttery and jittery. That’s the effect Gigi has on her. 

“So, how’d you like the movie?”

“Oh, um, I liked it, it was good,” Crystal answers vaguely in an attempt to disguise the fact that she had been paying much more attention to Gigi’s hand - and her own thoughts - than the movie itself.

“Me too,” Gigi agrees, “I think it’s one of my new favorites!” 

Gigi begins driving, and Crystal feels the warm California air envelop her. Gigi sings along to a song that Crystal doesn’t know the name of, barely audible over the sound of the wind, but still loud enough to completely and totally captivate Crystal. The lights of the city disappear behind the car as they drive, and all Crystal can do is smile. 

The drive goes by more quickly than Crystal would have liked it to; she knows it’s late and she needs to get home, but nothing sounds better than holding Gigi’s hand for another two hours. 

“Is this your house?”

“Yeah, it is,” Crystal sighs. “I had a really fun time tonight.”

“Me too,” Gigi whispers, turning her head to look at Crystal. 

The lowlight of the street lamps illuminate the dark sky, and Crystal can’t seem to focus on anything aside from Gigi’s bright red lips. Crystal _knows_ that she wants to kiss Gigi, and she can tell that Gigi wants that, too. But there go those damn butterflies again. She’s never been in this position and doing the wrong thing at the wrong time absolutely terrifies her. Kissing a _girl_ terrifies her. 

The only thing she can think to do is tuck a stray strand of hair that flew out of Gigi’s ponytail behind her ear - that’s what they did in all of the cheesy romance movies Crystal had watched, anyways. This elicits a quiet giggle from Gigi, and Crystal’s heart melts. 

“What’s so funny?” Crystal smiles. 

“Nothing, you’re just… you’re sweet and very captivating.” 

“I don’t think anyone’s ever called me that before.” 

Gigi has placed her hand on Crystal’s forearm, and moved as close to her as she can within the confines of her car. Crystal can feel herself shaking now; the idea of kissing Gigi is no longer a mere thought, it’s a real possibility. 

“Ireallywanttokissyou,” it’s out of Crystal’s mouth before she can stop herself and her nerve-driven impulses. 

“What?” Gigi looks confused, clearly not having heard her. 

“I really want -” 

Crystal doesn’t allow herself to finish her sentence. She closes the distance between herself and Gigi and presses their lips together. 

If Gigi is surprised or nervous, it doesn’t show. Her lips move against Crystal’s slowly and tenderly, and Gigi’s hands cup Crystal’s face. Her lips are soft and smooth and they taste like strawberries. Gigi lightly drags her tongue across Crystal’s bottom lip, and Crystal has to stifle a soft moan from escaping her lips. The kiss is electrifying and intense, and is made increasingly passionate when Gigi’s tongue meets Crystal’s. Crystal is on fire; she can feel the aftershocks of Gigi’s touch everywhere. 

Crystal is the one to break the kiss, needing to relax herself and breathe. It feels surreal, the entire night has. Crystal finds her forehead pressed against Gigi’s, and all she can think is “wow”. 

Crystal regains her composure, pulling away from the blonde, who looks at her with a smile. 

“I wanted to do that all night, Crys.”

The simple sentence almost propels Crystal to capture Gigi’s lips in another kiss, but she forces herself to get out of the car.

“Good night, Gigi.” 

“Call me?” 

“Well, of course,” Crystal grins. “Thanks for picking me up, and thanks for the movie.” 

“Thank you for coming tonight. Good night, Crys.” 

Gigi drives off as soon as Crystal walks up her porch, waving goodbye. 

She unlocks her door and walks inside, a smile still on her face and a head still filled with thoughts of Gigi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if any of you have seen "Go Fish" before, but if you haven't, I would totally recommend checking it out. It's a great 90s lesbian movie, and it was one of the first lesbian movies I ever saw.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit of a longer chapter - sorry for taking so long to update! The second part of the chapter is written from Gigi's perspective. Hope you all enjoy!

When Crystal walks in the door, it’s pushing 9:45 PM. She’s surprised to hear her mother - who tends to fall asleep earlier on in the night - in the living room, watching something on TV. 

“Hey mom, I’m home,” Crystal calls out. 

“Crystal! Come in here,” her mom yells in response. 

Crystal makes her way into the living room, trying to wipe the smile off of her face in an attempt to avoid the plethora of questions that she’s sure will come from her mother. 

“How was your night, honey?” her mom asks, turning off the show she’s watching and motioning for Crystal to sit down on the couch. 

“Oh, it was fun, we got sushi and saw a movie.”

“Sushi? Was that any good? And what movie did you see?” her mom interrogates. 

“Honestly, it was disgusting, I don’t know why everyone is so obsessed with it here,” Crystal shrugs. 

“And the movie?”

Crystal freezes. She can’t tell her mom she was in West Hollywood watching a lesbian movie - that would be too much, and too obvious. 

“Uh, I don’t remember.”

“You don’t remember what movie you saw?” her mom raises an eyebrow. 

“Yeah, uh, I mean, I was like, pretty sleepy and all, you know?” Crystal lies, knowing that her mom is most likely not buying any of it. 

“Okay… Well, I’m just glad you had a fun time tonight, sweetie,” her mom smiles. “How was the boy? Dating material or friend material, do tell!” 

Crystal wants to say that there was no boy, and that the  _ girl  _ she spent her evening with was  _ definitely  _ “dating material” (whatever that meant) but she can’t bring herself to do that - at least, not yet. 

“Friends, for sure. There wasn’t much of a spark there.”

“Friends are always nice, aren’t they?” Crystal’s mom hums. 

“Definitely, they definitely are,” Crystal fakes a yawn. “Well, I should probably head up to bed, I’m feeling pretty exhausted.”

“Okay honey, good night,” her mom says, kissing her on the cheek. “I love you!”

“I love you too, mom,” Crystal stands and walks up the stairs towards her room. 

She’s relieved that her mom didn’t ask too many questions about the night; Crystal knows that she isn’t a good liar and doesn’t like lying in the first place - especially to her mom. 

Crystal opens the door to her room and immediately flops down onto her bed, smiling into one of her pillows. The night still doesn’t feel real - Crystal is euphoric. She can still feel the soft pressure of Gigi’s lips against her own; thinking of the kiss is enough to send Crystal’s heart and head into a whirlwind. 

The excitement of the night doesn’t come without unwelcome thoughts; as Crystal’s elation increases, so does the realization that she  _ enjoyed  _ kissing a girl and would very much like to do it over and over again. Her sexuality is no longer a completely undefinable gray area; maybe she doesn’t know if she’s into guys, but she’s more than sure she likes girls. Crystal has always considered herself an accepting person and has never had qualms about supporting gay people, even in her small, rather conservative hometown. But she begins to realize that accepting herself is different than accepting others. 

She does, however, begin to fear rejection in a way that seems completely foreign to her. Even though she can’t recall a time when she wasn’t labelled the “weird art kid” and ostracized by many of her peers because of that, this feels different. She knows - from the way that Jackie talks about being treated and from the fact that Gigi and Jan both hide who they are to preserve their status - that if people find out, she’s going to be a social pariah. 

__

Crystal inhales and exhales deeply several times over, trying to clear her mind. She doesn’t have to come out tomorrow, or any time in the near future, and tries to convince herself that stressing about the situation will accomplish absolutely nothing. 

__

Crystal sighs aloud, and considers calling Jackie: if there’s one person who she’s sure will understand, it’s her. She tosses the idea around for a few minutes before grabbing the phone and dialing Jackie’s number. She hopes that it isn’t too late, and that she doesn’t wake the curly haired girl or her family up. 

__

The phone rings seven times before a familiar voice answers. 

__

“Hello?”

__

“Hi, Jackie, it’s Crystal, can you talk?”

__

“Yeah of course, just give me one second, okay?” Jackie says as the phone thuds down. 

__

Crystal can hear Jackie talking in the background, and hears Jan’s voice echo in response. 

__

“Okay, I’m back - Jan’s here too, is that okay?” 

__

“Of course,” Crystal answers, taking a slight pause. “So, I just got back from my date with Gigi.”

__

“How did it go?” Jackie questions. 

__

“It was amazing,” Crystal starts. “I had no idea what I was getting into and I still don’t really know how it stacked up compared to other first dates, but I think it went really well.”

__

“What did you guys do?” Jan jumps into the conversation. 

__

“Well, we got sushi - it wasn’t very good, but I didn’t tell her that - and then she wanted to see a movie so we went to West Hollywood and saw that,” Crystal explains.

__

“What movie?” Jackie asks. 

__

_ “Go Fish _ , it’s a lesbian movie.”

“I’ve been wanting to see that!” Jan exclaims. 

“It was really good,” Crystal tells the couple. “We held hands during it.”

Crystal is sure her relative inexperience with dating is showing, but she can’t seem to hold her excitement back over the simple act. 

“And, when she dropped me off at home, we kissed-” Crystal is interrupted by even louder squealing, coming mainly from Jan. 

“Crystal, that’s awesome! How do you feel?” Jackie exclaims. 

“I guess that’s why I’m calling, because I like,  _ really  _ liked it - like, I wanna kiss her again and never stop,” Crystal can feel herself blush. 

“That’s big,” Jackie says. “So, you’re thinking you’re not straight?”

Crystal sharply inhales. “I’m definitely into Gigi, so I’m definitely not straight.” 

“Well hey, welcome to the club!” Jan jokes. 

“Are you feeling okay about that?” Jackie wonders.

“Yes. No. Kind of. I don’t know,” Crystal groans. “I don’t know. I never have had a problem with gay people, but when the gay person is like, me, it’s different.” 

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Jackie affirms.

“I know I don’t have to know exactly  _ what  _ I am and I don’t have to come out to everyone right now, but I’m feeling some weird internal pressure that I didn’t even know existed. This whole thing is making me feel embarrassed or something,” Crystal explains. 

“I know it’s easier said than done, but just let things happen as they happen. Try to remind yourself that you’re allowed to take time to process, and as shitty as other people can be, try not to listen to them. You have nothing to be embarrassed about,” Jackie tells Crystal. 

“Thanks, Jackie.”

“Of course.”

“I’ll see you guys on Monday, I think I’m going to try and get some sleep,” Crystal states yawning, genuinely this time. 

“Good night!" 

Crystal hangs up the phone. She feels slightly relieved, and although she’s still a little bit stressed about the situation, she’s able to fall asleep the second her head hits the pillow. 

~

Crystal is awakened by the sound of her mom knocking on her door.

“Crystal, honey, are you awake? One of your friends is on the phone.”

She sits up, rubbing her eyes. The bright California sun is beating through her window, and Crystal is shocked that she’s remained asleep for so long. 

“What time is it?” 

“It’s almost eleven, you really slept in,” her mom says, cracking the door open. “Can I come in?”

“Mhm,” Crystal nods. 

“I’m going to just leave this here for you, okay?” her mom sets the phone down on Crystal's bed. 

Crystal is surprised she slept through the sound of the phone in her room ringing; she’s usually an early riser and light sleeper. She figures Jackie is calling to check up on her, and maybe wants to make plans - it’s a Saturday and the weather is more-than-ideal. 

“Hello?” Crystal says, her voice still scratchy and heavy with sleep. 

“Hey, it’s Gigi.”

_ Oh shit.  _

“Hey,” Crystal says, her mind foggy. 

“I didn’t realize I would be waking you up,” Gigi jokes. 

“I didn’t either,” Crystal murmurs, eliciting a quiet laugh from the blonde. 

The line is temporarily silent. 

“I had a really great time last night,” Gigi says softly. 

“Me too.”

“I don’t know if this is too much, too soon, but are you free today? I want to see you again.”

Crystal can’t help but smile at Gigi’s forwardness; it makes her heart flutter. 

“Yeah I’m free, and I’d love to see you again too.”

“Great. Can I come by in an hour?”

“Sure,” Crystal agrees. “Where are we going?” 

“Hm, it’s a surprise! But wear something comfortable,” Gigi tells her. 

“Okay,” Crystal says hesitantly. “I’ll see you soon.”

The phone clicks, and Crystal almost immediately jumps out of her bed and walks down the stairs, in search of her mom. 

“Hey mom, can I go out with a friend today?” Crystal asks hastily. 

“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” her mom jokes. “Sure, where are you going?”

“I don’t know, it’s a surprise!”

“Hm, alrighty, please be safe. Who are you going with?” 

“Her name is Gigi, she’s a friend from art class,” Crystal explains. 

She bounds back up the stairs and quickly showers. She decides to apply a thin layer of foundation and mascara before getting dressed. 

As she ruffles through her boxes - still left unpacked - she realizes she has no idea what to wear. She flips through boxes of shirts and dresses, and finally settles on a blue and white paisley shirt. She grabs a pair of jean shorts, and hurriedly dresses herself before examining herself in her mirror. Crystal attempts to tie her thick, curly hair up into a ponytail - she assumes Gigi will be driving with the top of her car off again - and the result is somewhat abysmal. She’s about to take the scrunchie out to redo it until she hears the doorbell ring. 

“I GOT IT!” Crystal yells, retying her hair and rushing to throw on a pair of converse. She hopes her mom doesn’t beat her to the door. 

She’s too late; as she runs down the stairs, she can see her mom standing at the open door. 

“Hi Gigi!” Crystal interjects, slightly out of breath, interrupting her mom. 

“Hey,” Gigi says casually. 

“I was just telling Gigi how great it is that you’re making friends so quickly!” Crystal’s mom explains. “I’ll let you girls get going. Have a good day!”

“It was nice meeting you,” Gigi politely extends a hand to Crystal’s mom. 

“We’re huggers here,” she responds. “Can I give you a hug?”

Crystal is mortified; her mom definitely acts like she’s from the midwest. Thankfully, Gigi just giggles and goes along with it. 

“Bye, mom,” Crystal calls out as she and Gigi make their way outside. 

“Your mom is sweet,” Gigi tells Crystal, getting in the car. 

“Yeah, she’s pretty cool,” Crystal agrees. 

“I wish I could say that about my parents,” Gigi half-jokes, turning the key to her car. 

“So, are you going to tell me where we’re going yet?” Crystal asks. 

“Not quite yet.”

~

“The Walk of Fame?”

“No.”

“The Hollywood Sign?”

“No.”

“Beverly Hills?”

“Oh, god.”

“Give me a hint!” 

Gigi laughs at Crystal’s attempt to guess the location of their second date; she’s adorable. 

The drive is just over thirty minutes away, and Crystal has spent the first ten minutes shooting out guesses. 

“You’ll find out soon enough! We’re almost there!” 

The drive is filled with music and laughter. Crystal, after her many inquiries, has begun humming along to the Ani DiFranco tape Gigi has been playing. Gigi finds her off-pitch singing strangely endearing. 

Gigi thinks that Crystal - Crystal and her beautiful, curly hair and her dark, enchanting eyes and her bright personality - might just be her new favorite person to spend time with.

Gigi gets lost in her own thoughts as she drives. Since she and Jackie had broken up last year, Gigi hadn’t  _ really  _ dated anyone. It wasn’t that she had feelings for Jackie still - no, those were gone just weeks after the break-up, in fact - it was that nobody else seemed worth investing her time in. Gigi met girls at all of the bars she was able to lie her way into, and sometimes, they’d even make out and Gigi would promise to call them (she never would).

She didn’t feel the need to be with someone because she was happy alone, genuinely. Relationships, in Gigi’s experience, just complicated things - especially when you’re an in-the-closet lesbian. 

When she met Crystal, all of that flew out the door. The blonde couldn’t put a finger on it, but something about Crystal set her insides on fire. It was beyond the fact that Gigi found Crystal to be absolutely stunning - even in the atrocious paisley pattern the older girl chose to wear. It was that Crystal had a uniqueness to her. She was genuine and kind and whenever she smiled, Gigi felt herself melt.

It’s too soon for so many feelings, and she knows that, but she can’t help it: her emotions are running wild. All she wants to do is show Crystal  _ how much  _ she likes her, and Gigi figures a romantic picnic on the beach - complete with scented candles and expensive rosé stolen from her parents’ wine cellar - is the best way to do that. 

“Are we going to the beach?” Crystal asks as Gigi exits the freeway. 

“You got it!” 

“Which one?” Crystal asks. 

“Malibu.” 

Gigi parallel parks - somehow, without bumping into another car - just blocks away from the beach. She can smell the saltwater in the air, and hears the seagulls cawing. The beach has always been one of the favorite places. 

She pops her trunk open and grabs the thick quilt she brought, along with the woven picnic basket.

“Hey Crys, would you mind carrying the blanket?” she asks. 

“Not at all!” Crystal grabs the blanket from Gigi, and the two set off towards the sand. 

“So, have you been to the beach before?” Gigi asks Crystal. 

“No, I haven’t. I didn’t ever really leave Missouri, so the best thing I have to compare this to is the lake I used to go to every summer as a kid,” Crystal shares. 

When they’re halfway to the water, Gigi tells Crystal to set the quilt down. Crystal spreads out the blanket carefully, attempting to not fling sand around. Gigi places the picnic basket at the center of it, and as she sits down, she begins removing items. She’s made a simple lunch - pasta salad and garlic bread - but Crystal seems enthused regardless. 

The sound of the waves lull the two into a peaceful silence. Gigi closes her eyes and focuses on the crashing of the waves. It’s a beautiful day for a picnic.

“Do you want any rosé?” Gigi asks.

“Oh, um, yeah, I’ll try some,” Crystal answers.

“You’ve never had rosé before?”

“I’ve never had  _ alcohol  _ before,” Crystal admits. 

“Never?!”

“Never,” the brown-eyed girl confirms with a laugh. 

Gigi grabs the two plastic cups she brought along and pours the rosé into them. She takes a sip, and watches as Crystal does the same. Gigi studies her face as she sips it; Gigi thinks it’s refreshing, but that’s probably because she’s been going to parties with the football team since she was a freshman, and anything other than a straight shot of vodka tastes like candy in comparison. 

Crystal puckers her lips slightly, but swallows the pinkish liquid. 

“So, what do you think?”

“It’s really good!” Crystal says enthusiastically. 

“Right?! This is like, the best kind of alcohol you’ll ever have, trust me.”

The two eat quickly and nearly silently; they both are clearly hungry. Gigi suggests finishing off the rosé, and Crystal agrees. 

“I really want to go touch the water, can we go touch the water?” Crystal asks suddenly. They walk with their almost-empty cups down to the water, and Crystal announces that she’s going swimming. This is when Gigi realizes she’s made a terrible mistake. 

Crystal has  _ never  _ had alcohol, and Gigi has practically fed her half a bottle of semi-strong rosé. Crystal is pretty composed, and at worst is maybe slightly past tipsy, but it’s clear to Gigi that she’s some level of intoxicated. 

“You are  _ not  _ going to go swimming, it’s _ freezing _ and you don’t have a swimsuit!” Gigi exclaims, half-laughing. 

“But it’s so nice, look at the waves,” Crystal muses. 

“It’s nice, but the second your toes touch the water, you’re going to regret it!”

Crystal apparently takes this as a challenge; she finishes whatever is left in her cup and darts toward the water, faster than Gigi can run. She makes it all the way to her knees before she stops in her tracks. 

“You were right!” she yells at Gigi. “It’s pretty freaking cold!” 

“Then get out!” Gigi laughs, unable to hide the smile that’s growing on her face. 

“No,  _ you  _ should come  _ in!”  _

__

Okay, so, maybe she’s a lot past tipsy. 

__

“No way! Come on, Crystal, please get out,” Gigi begs, knowing that it will only take one medium-sized wave to knock the girl over. 

__

“I’m going out farther,” she announces, turning around. 

__

“Crystal,  _ please _ do not do that!” 

__

It’s too late; she’s already propelling herself forward. 

__

“I’m not getting out until you come in!”

__

Gigi huffs, realizing she’s going to have to give in to the past-tipsy girl. She’s thankful that she chose to wear a pair of jean shorts instead of a dress, for once. 

__

“Fine, I’m coming,” groans Gigi as she makes her way to the water. 

__

It’s fucking freezing. Gigi’s toes have barely touched the wet sand, and she already has goosebumps cascading up her body. 

__

She  _ really  _ likes this girl. 

__

Crystal squeals, finally heading closer to shore. Her back, however, is turned away from the wave that crashes over her, dunking her under water. 

__

“Crystal?!” Gigi screams, quickly making her way. 

__

She  _ told  _ her not to go swimming. Gigi is panicking now; the brunette hasn’t ever swam in the ocean, and she’s intoxicated. Gigi kicks herself for giving Crystal alcohol in the first place and regret fills her mind. 

__

“Gigi, I’m okay!” Gigi spins to the right to see a very wet, but still smiling, Crystal. 

“Thank god,” Gigi breathes a sigh of relief. “That really freaked me out, can we please get out?”

"Fine,” Crystal reluctantly agrees. “But can we come back and do this again sometime? Please?” 

Tipsy Crystal is even funnier than the already-funny sober Crystal, and definitely more outspoken. 

_____ _

“Of course we can,” Gigi replies honestly, thankful that she’s able to coerece the other girl into getting out. Gigi packs up the picnic and wraps Crystal in the somewhat sandy quilt. 

_____ _

The curly haired girl grabs Gigi’s hand on the way back to her car. Gigi shakes as the wind blows against her wet clothes and hair. 

_____ _

“Sorry for giving you alcohol,” Gigi apologizes. “I really wasn’t thinking, and I forgot that it’s super easy to get tipsy when you haven’t drank before.”

_____ _

Gigi recalls her first time drinking alcohol silently; she was fourteen, and she did six shots with the girls from cheer. That night ended with Gigi bent over a toilet in a stranger’s house for a solid hour. 

_____ _

“It’s okay,” Crystal hiccups, “I had fun!” 

_____ _

“Me too,” Gigi says. 

_____ _

She has so much fun with Crystal that she doesn’t even care about the interior of her very expensive car getting sand and saltwater all over it; it’s a task for another day. 

_____ _

Crystal falls asleep on the way back home, and Gigi is kind of thankful for it: the last thing she needs is someone puking in her car. She enjoys the ride home in silence, allowing the wind to dry her clothes as she goes.

_____ _

“Crystal, you’re home,” Gigi says after she parks her car. She shakes the girl’s shoulder lightly, trying to wake her. 

_____ _

“Hm?” Crystal murmurs. 

_____ _

“You’re home,” Gigi repeats. 

_____ _

Crystal stirs awake. “Thanks for the ride.”

_____ _

“Of course,” Gigi smiles, and kisses Crystal’s cheek. 

_____ _

“Do you wanna come in and hang out for a bit?” Crystal asks. She's clearly sobered up from the nap, which Gigi is thankful for. 

_____ _

“I’d love to,” Gigi beams. 

_____ _

“We have to be quiet, otherwise my mom's going to bug us." 

_____ _

“Got it,” Gigi agrees. She opens up her door, and helps a drowsy Crystal out of her car. 

_____ _

Crystal opens her door quietly, motioning for Gigi to follow her. 

_____ _

Crystal’s house is warm; it feels lived in, unlike Gigi’s own house. There are mismatching sofas and chairs, and family pictures in assorted picture frames line the walls. Decorations that Gigi would have usually found tacky sit on shelves, but all that Gigi can think is how nice it must be to come home to this house every day. 

_____ _

Gigi tiptoes behind Crystal up the stairs, and into her bedroom. 

_____ _

“Sorry for all of the boxes, and uh, all of the mess,” Crystal apologizes.

_____ _

“It’s okay, you just moved in!”

_____ _

Crystal laughs, “No, I’ve been here for a month now, I’m just lazy.”

_____ _

Gigi finds her blatant honesty sweet. 

_____ _

“If you ever want help unpacking, let me know,” Gigi offers. “I’m pretty good at organizing things!”

_____ _

“You’re too kind,” Crystal grins. “But it’s okay, I wouldn’t want to put that on you.” 

_____ _

“I offered! You wouldn’t be putting anything on me.”

_____ _

Crystal pauses, as if she needs time to think about what to say next. 

_____ _

“Can I kiss you?” Crystal whispers. 

_____ _

Gigi blushes - she doesn’t think anyone has ever asked before they’ve kissed her, and she finds it sweet that Crystal is considerate enough to ask. She can tell Crystal is nervous, and for whatever reason, it makes her heart thump. 

_____ _

“Yes,” Gigi responds.

_____ _

This time, they’re not kissing under the subdued light coming from the street lamps at night, and they’re not sitting in Gigi’s car. Gigi watches as Crystal moves towards her, pressing their bodies together. They make eye contact for a brief moment before Crystal, being almost five inches shorter than Gigi, stands on her tiptoes and softly presses a kiss into Gigi’s lips. 

_____ _

Gigi’s hands find their way around Crystal’s back, pulling the smaller girl closer to her. Gigi feels Crystal’s arms loop around her neck.. 

_____ _

The kiss remains slow and soft initially; their lips brush against each other with a delicate innocence. Crystal’s lips are soft and Gigi can taste the remnants of alcohol and salt water on them. 

_____ _

When Crystal’s hand makes its way to cup Gigi’s cheek, Gigi takes it as a sign to deepen the kiss. She presses their lips together with more force, and Crystal is the one who moves her tongue along Gigi’s lower lip. Gigi’s tongue meets Crystal’s, eliciting a quiet gasp from Crystal. 

_____ _

Their lips move together hastily and feverently. Crystal’s hands make their way into Gigi’s messy hair and Gigi gently bites down on Crystal’s lower lip. Crystal moans softly into Gigi’s mouth, causing the taller girl’s stomach to flip. 

_____ _

Gigi is shocked when Crystal - usually timid and nervous - gently pushes up against her, moving them backwards towards the bed. Gigi’s knees buckle against the edge of it, causing her to cascade down onto the mattress, Crystal’s body following her own in one fluid motion. Gigi’s skin is burning beneath Crystal’s touch and she can feel her breath hitch in her throat as they continue to kiss fervidly. Gigi’s hands make their way up Crystal’s hips and she pulls them down against her in an attempt to get impossibly closer to the girl on top of her.

_____ _

Their kisses become languid, and Crystal falls beside Gigi on the bed wordlessly. She snuggles into the blue-eyed girl’s side, and Gigi wraps her arm around her. Gigi sighs contentedly as she strokes Crystal’s hair. The shorter girl is curled up on her chest, peppering kisses against her collarbone periodically. Gigi wishes she could keep Crystal in her arms forever; she doesn’t think she’s ever experienced a moment so quintessentially perfect. 

_____ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Feedback is greatly appreciated! :-) The next chapter should be up on Friday!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration struck and I spent all morning writing in a caffeine-fueled haze. I'll probably update again sometime this weekend as well! Enjoy! :-)

When Crystal wakes up from her second nap of the day, the first thing she becomes aware of is the scent of vanilla. The second thing she becomes aware of, once she opens her eyes, is that Gigi is fast asleep and still holding her. They shifted positions during their nap; Crystal’s back is pressed against Gigi’s stomach and the taller girl is acting as the big spoon. 

Crystal realizes the vanilla smell filling her senses is coming from Gigi’s hair. 

The older girl doesn’t want to wake Gigi, but she’s worried that her mom may come in to check on her - and maybe already has - and see the two cuddling. Crystal doubts that her mom’s first thought will be that Crystal is gay, but it’s still unnerving enough for her to roll over so she’s facing Gigi and wake the girl up. 

“Gigi, hey, wake up,” Crystal says softly. 

“Hm?” Gigi stirs. 

“We fell asleep a few hours ago, it’s almost five,” Crystal tells her. 

“I’m up,” Gigi mutters in a groggy voice, reaching for Crystal’s hand. 

The two intertwine their fingers as Gigi opens her eyes. Crystal has always thought Gigi’s icy blue eyes were striking, but she’s never seen them from just inches away. Crystal is mesmerized by them; she never wants to stop looking. 

“Hi,” Gigi murmurs. 

“Hey,” Crystal responds with a giggle. 

Gigi lightly pecks Crystal’s lips, and the curly-haired girl can’t help but smile at the sweet gesture. 

“Sorry for falling asleep,” Crystal starts. “I was pretty tired and you’re pretty comfy.”

“No complaints here,” Gigi sits up and stretches. “I should probably get going pretty soon - my parents are going to start wondering where I am, and I can’t pull the “I’m at practice” or the “I’m with the squad” excuse when I’m gone for more than five hours.”

“Yeah, for sure. I’ll walk you down,” Crystal nods. 

The girls get out of Crystal’s bed and make their way downstairs, only to be greeted by Crystal’s mom. 

“You girls are just so cute,” she beams. “I came in to check on you and the two of you were all bundled up together.” 

Crystal grimaces, thankful that her mom is oblivious but acutely aware that she was cutting it close. Gigi laughs in response, and Crystal grins at her mom in an attempt to act normal.

“Where did you girls go today?” 

“The beach,” Crystal answers. 

“Oh, how lovely! Gigi, do you get to go to the beach much?”

“I do because my parents own a beach house, but I haven’t been for a while. It was nice going back,” Gigi converses. 

“A beach house, that must be so nice!” Crystal’s mom muses. 

“Gigi was actually getting ready to leave.” 

“Oh, but it’s almost dinnertime! Gigi, why don’t you stay? I’d love to get to know one of my daughter’s new friends.”

“I shouldn’t, I didn’t tell my parents how long I’d be out for and I’d hate for them to worry,” Gigi apologizes. 

“Well, if you want, you can always use our phone to call home!”

Gigi looks at Crystal apprehensively and Crystal shrugs. 

“Okay, well, I’ll see if they’d be okay with it.”

Crystal’s mom smiles, and makes her way into the kitchen to grab the handheld. Crystal can’t help but feel nervous about the potential for her parents finding out about her and Gigi - whatever they are - at dinner. 

Gigi dials home as she sits on the couch. Crystal watches her with adoring eyes, enthused by the way her long, slender fingers move against the keys and the way her voice goes up in pitch when she talks on the phone. 

“Mhm, yeah, a friend from art class,” Gigi says into the phone. There’s a slight pause before she speaks again. “Yeah, I’ll definitely be home by then.” Another pause. “I will. Bye, mom.” 

Gigi hangs up the phone and hands it to Crystal, “I can stay - if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course it is,” Crystal doesn’t have to think twice about that - she wants to spend as much time with the blonde as she possibly can. 

“It’s really kind of your mom to have me for dinner, I can’t imagine my parents ever extending that invitation to anyone, especially not a new friend.”

“Midwestern hospitality, you know?” Crystal jokes. 

“Crystal, do you and Gigi want to come help me in the kitchen?” Crystal’s mom yells. 

Crystal looks towards Gigi, who smiles. 

“Uh, sure!” the girls walk into the kitchen jointly. 

“Has Crystal told you she’s a master chef?” Crystal’s mom asks Gigi with a seriousness in her voice. 

“No, she has not,” Gigi grins. 

“I’m not,” Crystal interjects quickly, knowing that this will lead into one of her mom’s signature “my daughter can’t cook to save her life” jokes. “I can barely chop vegetables, I’ll burn anything that requires more attention than a microwave dinner, and I don’t know how to use spices.”

This elicits a laugh from her mom. 

“Are you much of a cook, Gigi?”

“I am, actually,” the blonde answers. “I take cooking classes almost every summer.”

“Well, why don’t we stick Crystal on peeling potatoes, and you can help me pan sear these chicken breasts and make sauce!” 

Crystal rolls her eyes, agreeing to peel the potatoes. Her mom and Gigi seem to hit it off - not that she’s surprised because her mom tends to “make friends” with her friends and Gigi is incredibly polite - and seeing them in conversation makes her almost forget that she’s been banished to complete the most menial task in the kitchen. 

“So, you two are in art class together?” her mom asks. 

“Yeah, we are. I helped Crystal find her way there on the first day,” Gigi shares. 

“Oh, how nice! What kind of art do you make?”

“I like drawing, mainly.” Crystal makes a mental note to ask her about the drawings later; surprisingly, they hadn’t talked much about art on their dates. 

“Crystal paints a lot, don’t you Cryssy?” Crystal shudders at her mom’s embarrassing nickname and nods her head.  
  
“I spend all of my free time painting,” Crystal tells Gigi. 

“I wish I had more time to draw, cheer takes up most of my time.”

“You’re a cheerleader!” Crystal’s mom exclaims. 

“I’m the captain of the varsity squad,” Gigi announces proudly. 

Crystal has never understood the appeal of cheerleading and definitely doesn’t understand why it seems to be the universal code for popular, pretty, and bitchy; she’s thankful that Gigi (usually) only fits two of the stereotypes. She loves that Gigi loves cheer and decides that if Gigi’s okay with it, she wants to watch her cheer, even though sports aren’t really her thing. 

Crystal finishes peeling the potatoes and her mom asks if she and Gigi can go to the store to pick up some napkins and butter. The two agree, and Crystal’s mom hands her a twenty, telling her to keep the change. 

“You know,” Gigi starts as they drive, “I think your mom likes me.”

Crystal grins. “She _definitely_ does. Thanks for going along with everything, I know getting pulled into the kitchen at someone’s house the first time you come over it a bit… weird.”

“I didn’t think it was weird,” Gigi says. “I like how welcoming your mom is. She’s really sweet.”

“Well, I’m glad you think so,” Crystal pauses. “What’s your mom like? Are you guys close?”

Gigi laughs dryly. “No. We’re not close at all. Neither are my dad and I.”

“I’m sorry,” Crystal apologizes, realizing she may have brought up a sore subject. 

“No, it’s okay,” Gigi reassures the brown-eyed girl, reaching out to the side to hold Crystal’s hand. “I don’t think my mom has asked me as many questions about my life in one year as your mom has in an hour. It just sucks.”

“I could only imagine,” Crystal responds somberly, squeezing the hand Gigi isn’t driving with. “You’re obviously always welcome here now. My mom thinks we’re best friends already.”

“Well, aren’t we?” Gigi jokes, a look of mock confusion on her face.

“That’s exactly what we are - best friends,” Crystal chuckles. “I’m really glad my mom didn’t think anything of us cuddling. That was close.”

“Oh gosh, yeah, could you _imagine_ having to come out like that?”

They arrive at the store minutes later. Gigi grabs Crystal’s hand as they walk through the parking lot and Crystal can’t help but think that it’s kind of domestic - sure, they’re just picking up a few things for her mom, but she’s never held hands with someone while they grab groceries. 

Crystal picks up a basket on their way in. Gigi grabs napkins off of the shelf - not untangling her fingers from Crystal’s - and places them in the basket. They grab butter next, and head to the check out. 

“Wait, Gigi!” Crystal stops. A disposable camera catches her eye, and she hurries to grab it. “I’m going to get this too. We can take pictures together.” Crystal likes that her suggestion makes Gigi beam and decides it’s a great use of the extra money from her mom. 

“Gigi?” Crystal hears a voice call out from behind her. She spins around, noticing that the blonde already has. 

“Nicky, Jaida, hi!” Gigi says. Crystal can tell that the enthusiasm in her voice is forced. 

They’re next in line, so Crystal continues checking out, ignoring the conversation behind her. 

“Who’s that?” one of the girls whispers. 

“That’s uh, my partner for an art project. She’s tutoring me or whatever, too.” 

“What the hell is she wearing?” the other voice asks.

Gigi laughs. “I don’t even know, all of these art kids are so _weird_.”

Crystal feels the comment sting. Sure, she gets that Gigi can’t come out, but who said anything about them being friends? Gigi didn’t even use her name - she’s just a “partner for an art project”, not worth introducing. And calling her weird, over a shirt? It just seems needlessly cruel and rude.

Crystal pays, and walks out of the door without checking to see if Gigi follows. 

She waits by the car for almost five minutes before Gigi emerges from the store. 

“Crystal, I’m sorry,” Gigi apologizes. 

“It’s fine,” Crystal says quietly. “Let’s just go.”

“Okay,” Gigi agrees. 

The drive home is silent, and when Gigi reaches for Crystal’s hand, the curly haired girl moves her hand away. 

Gigi pulls up to the curb outside of Crystal’s house. “Crys, can we please talk? I’m sorry, it was inconsiderate and really shitty of me.”

“I think you should probably go home,” Crystal murmurs. “I don’t feel very good.” 

Gigi bites her lower lip. Crystal can tell she feels bad, and for a split second, considers letting it go. But she doesn’t. 

She gets out of the car, not waving goodbye, and walks inside. 

“Honey, where did Gigi go?” her mom asks.  
  
“She wanted to get home, I think she was just worried that her parents were going to be mad if she got home even a little late.”

“Bummer!” her mom exclaims. Crystal hands her mom the napkins and butter. 

“I don’t really feel good, I think I’m going to lay down for a bit,” Crystal heads up the stairs. 

She immediately dials Jackie’s number and prays that the girl picks up. 

A voice answers after only two rings.

“Hello?” 

“Hey, it’s me.”

“How’s your day going? Is everything okay?” Jackie asks. 

“Um,” Crystal begins, “not really. Gigi and I hung out and it was all fine and good until she saw some of her friends at the store.”

“Oh honey, what happened?” Jackie’s tone is soft and concerned. 

“She uh, made fun of my clothes and called me weird,” Crystal feels childish for being hurt, and for not talking the situation out, but her feelings are flying everywhere. 

Jackie scoffs. “This is why Gigi and I didn’t work out. I couldn’t take how _mean_ she was, just for the sake of keeping up her image.”

Crystal is silent. 

“Do you need anything?” Jackie asks. 

“No, I just needed to talk to someone. I told her to go home, I don’t really know if I want to keep seeing her if this is how it’s going to be whenever she sees her friends.”

“That’s understandable.”

“Is Jan ever like that?” Crystal asks, unable to see the peppy blonde being mean to _anyone_ , especially her girlfriend. 

“Never,” Jackie says. “She doesn’t shout that we’re together from the rooftops, for obvious reasons, but the entire squad thinks we’re best friends. Jan told them to stop picking on me the _second_ we started spending time together.”

“Hm.”

“You’re allowed to feel hurt, Crystal. Just take care of yourself, okay?”

“Thanks, Jackie,” Crystal sighs. 

~

Crystal doesn’t go down for dinner, and on Sunday, she spends all day in her room painting. By the time Monday rolls around, she’s made peace with the Gigi siutation. 

She’s decided that clearly, she was _much_ more interested in Gigi than Gigi was in her. That makes sense; Gigi looks the way she does, and has probably dated around. She can get any girl - one that isn’t “weird” - and Crystal is fine accepting that their two-date fling was a temporary thing. 

Jackie and Jan pick Crystal up on Monday morning. 

“Hi, girls!” Crystal smiles, getting into the car.  
  
“Hey!” they say.  
  
“We brought coffee!” Jackie announces, handing Crystal a cup. 

“You’re both too sweet,” Crystal smiles. “Thank you.”

“I’m sorry about Gigi, Crystal,” Jan says sympathetically. 

“It’s honestly not a big deal,” Crystal declares. “I’m totally fine.”

“Well, good. You deserve the best!” Jackie encourages. 

Jackie cranks up the music and the three girls sing along loudly. Crystal smiles - she likes that she’s beginning to learn the lyrics to her friends’ favorite songs and that they know her coffee order already. 

The group pulls into the school parking lot twenty minutes before first period begins. Jackie and Jan kiss quickly inside of the car before Jan heads off to meet with the cheer squad. Jackie and Crystal head towards the art building. 

Once they make it to the top of the hill outside, they sit down and await the start of class. 

“I’m glad you’re doing okay today,” Jackie nudges her. 

“Me too. I’m just glad that I’ve got good friends to back me up.”

“I’m really happy that I sat next to you in art. I don’t really have friends here - other than Jan obviously, but that’s different - so it’s been really nice.”  
Crystal pulls Jackie into a side hug, making the girl laugh. Jackie throws one of her arms around Crystal’s shoulders and Crystal grins. 

The two sit uninterrupted for almost one minute before Crystal hears a familiar voice calling her name. 

“Crystal, can we please talk?”

Crystal turns her head. When she sees Gigi standing above her, she immediately gets up.

“I guess,” Crystal replies hesitantly. She looks at Jackie - she’s currently staring daggers into the blonde - and apologizes before following Gigi away. 

“I’m sorry,” Gigi starts. “I shouldn’t have said what I did. It was _really_ fucking dumb.” 

“Thanks,” Crystal accepts the apology. 

Gigi grabs her hand and starts walking. “Come on, follow me.”

Crystal obliges reluctantly, and trails behind Gigi even after she releases her hand. 

Gigi approaches a large group of girls, and Crystal is suddenly nervous. She realizes that they’re probably all cheer girls - Jan is there too, sipping her coffee - and she shudders. 

“What are we doing?” Crystal asks. 

“Nothing. You’ll see.” 

Crystal suddenly finds herself standing in front of the group. Jan looks at her inquisitively, and Crystal shrugs. 

“Ladies,” Gigi says sharply. “This is my _friend_ Crystal.” 

Crystal is turning beet red - she can feel the blood rushing to her face and she wishes she could disappear. 

“Okay…” a few of the girls drawl out. 

“I don’t want to hear _any_ comments about her or about me spending time with her - because I _will_ be spending time with her, at school, away from school, after our games.” 

“What is it with you and Jan making friends with people who look like they belong on a different planet?” one of the girls snickers.

Crystal doesn’t think she’s ever seen such an angry scowl on Jan’s face; the ordinarily kind, upbeat girl looks like she’s about to scream. 

“Brita, would you _please_ shut up for once in your life?” Jan snaps. 

“This is exactly what I’m talking about,” Gigi points out. “We _all_ need to stop being so fucking rude all the time. It’s not a good look.” 

Everyone is silent. 

“I’ll see you all at practice later. Be ready to work.”

Gigi stalks off, motioning for a semi-stunned Crystal to follow. They walk in temporary silence. 

“Thank you,” Crystal whispers. Gigi saying sorry was nice, but knowing that she was willing to actually _admit_ that Crystal was more than a random classmate did more than a verbal apology. 

“I was wrong, I did this once already and I’m not going to make the same mistakes I’ve made before. You deserve better than what I was giving you.”

“I appreciate it, Gig. I accept your apology.” 

“I want you to know that I didn’t do any of this to like, cover my ass so we could keep going on dates, I did it because I owed it to you and it was the right thing to do,” Gigi starts. “But, I also want to let you know that I really like the way your hand feels in my hand, kissing you makes me absolutely lose my mind, and I can’t go more than a few minutes without thinking about you.”

It’s Crystal’s turn to grab Gigi’s arm and walk off in a different direction. Gigi follows the shorter girl without complaint. 

Crystal has relatively little knowledge of where she’s taking Gigi, but the two end up behind what Crystal thinks is the art building. It’s secluded and quiet and as soon as Crystal stops walking, she spins around to face Gigi and presses their lips together. 

Gigi, although clearly surprised, melts into the kiss. The taller girl’s arms wrap around Crystal, and Crystal reaches up to cup Gigi’s cheeks. 

They pull apart after thirty seconds, breathing heavily. 

“I was really hurt, Gig,” Crystal starts. “But if you’re serious - if what happened on Saturday isn’t going to happen again - I want to keep doing… whatever this is.” 

“You have no idea how happy that makes me,” Gigi smiles, wrapping Crystal in a hug. 

“We’re going to be late for class if we keep this up,” Crystal jokes, breaking apart from Gigi. 

“Oh well,” Gigi shrugs, enveloping Crystal in her arms once again as their lips meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I didn't think that this fic would get any attention, considering it's my first time writing fanfiction (and my first time in YEARS writing any kind of fictional work), so every single comment from y'all makes me SUPER happy!
> 
> Not to shamelessly self-promo, but I just remade my Tumblr - if y'all wanna follow/talk about Drag Race, it's @lilacdyke!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO sorry for taking so long to update! I had the worst case of writer's block ever, and I had midterms this week. Thanks for being patient. I hope this makes up for my lack of posting!

It’s been two weeks since Gigi announced to the cheer squad that Crystal was, in fact, her friend. And those two weeks had been delightful. 

Every day, Gigi made a point to either sit with Jackie, Crystal, and Jan at lunch, or pull Crystal over to the squad’s lunch table. Crystal found herself beginning to enjoy getting to know the group: most of them were, to her surprise, funny, genuine, and generally good-natured. She especially found herself clicking with Nicky and Jaida. Although they were standoffish at first, Crystal quickly bonded with Nicky over her interest in fashion (although many would consider Crystal’s taste questionable at the very best, Nicky seemed to think it was “perfectly unique and lovely”) and Jaida over being the “new kid”, as she had moved from Wisconsin just a few years prior. 

When Gigi first began sitting with Crystal, Jackie, and Jan, Jackie seemed to be pensive. She kept quiet and let the other three girls do all of the talking. However, this changed as soon as Gigi talked about what it was like sneaking into gay clubs in West Hollywood. Jackie lit up, asking questions about it for almost the entire lunch period. Crystal knew Jackie wanted nothing more than to have an out-and-proud gay community surrounding her - she was the only one of the four who  _ everyone  _ knew was gay. Gigi promised that she would accompany Jackie, and the other two girls, on one of the “18+” nights that the clubs held. From then on, Jackie seemed to gradually warm towards the blue-eyed cheerleader. 

Gigi would drive Crystal home most days, often electing to come inside to do homework and cook dinner. The two would spend the first hour unable to focus, finding themselves tangled up in Crystal’s bed, lips attached and make-up smudged. Eventually, they’d compose themselves and start homework until Crystal’s mom arrived home. She’d hug both girls, and the three would automatically make their way into the kitchen. Gigi had made the comment that she felt, in many ways, that she was already closer to Crystal’s mom than her own. Crystal felt sad for her - Gigi never talked about her family and assumed that the situation was less-than-ideal - but her heart soared when she saw the blonde and her mom in fits of laughter together. Gigi would eat dinner with her family most nights, and Crystal would kiss her goodbye through the window of her magenta convertible before she drove home. They had fallen into a comfortable routine and Crystal could not have been happier. 

~

Crystal is sitting with Jackie at their secluded lunch table, sketching the outline of a bird for an art project while Jackie flips through her government textbook. It’s a strangely gray day in Los Angeles and Crystal almost wonders if it will rain: the sun is completely hidden behind fog and dark clouds and it’s chilly enough that Crystal wishes she’d brought a hoodie with her to school. 

She’s pulled out of her thoughts when she hears Gigi’s familiar laugh from a distance. It’s light and high-pitched and it makes Crystal light up. She turns around to see Gigi making her way over with Jan; they’re both wearing their cheer uniforms and Crystal doesn’t think she’s ever seen anyone look as stunning as Gigi does.

“Hey girls!” Gigi says as she sits down next to Crystal. 

“Hey!” Crystal grins. “You look uh, really pretty in your uniform,” she says in a hushed tone. It’s the first time she’s seen Gigi in it. 

Gigi blushes. “Thank you.”

“So, we were talking about what we could do tonight after the game!” Jan interrupts, nudging Jackie softly to get the girl to look up from her textbook. 

“What’s that?” Jackie asks, shutting the book. 

“What if we all had a big sleepover?!” Jan suggests excitedly. 

“Where?” Crystal asks. 

“Jan’s house, her mom is really cool,” Gigi explains. 

“Yeah, she knows about Jackie and I and is like, super happy for us,” elaborates the other blonde. 

“She’s just happy that you’re finally dating someone who hasn’t had all of their braincells tackled out of them,” Jackie quips with a smirk. 

“Ouch. But you’re not wrong,” Jan laughs, “I guess football guys aren’t always the brightest tools in the shed.”

“So, what do you think?!” Gigi interjects. 

“I’m up for it!” Crystal agrees quickly, excited to spend more time with both of her new friends and her…  _ whatever Gigi is  _ to her. 

“Jackie?”

“Obviously!” Jackie smiles. 

“Yay!” Jan and Gigi simultaneously exclaim. 

“Will you gals come to the football game, then?” Jan asks. 

“I guess,” Jackie decides hesitantly. 

“I’ve never been to a football game,” Crystal says. “I’ll give it a try, though. Why not?” 

“You and I can just hang out at the top of the bleachers and read, Crystal,” Jackie tells the curly-haired girl.

“For sure." 

“Oh, come on, where’s your school spirit?! You gotta cheer the team on!” Jan jokes with her girlfriend and Jackie rolls her eyes playfully. 

The wind begins softly blowing, making Crystal shiver again. She doesn’t understand California weather - it’s usually hot enough that she feels like she needs an ice bath, but right now, a warm sweater and some hot chocolate sounds delightful. 

“Crys, are you cold?” Gigi asks. 

“Oh no, I’m fine,” Crystal assures the blonde, trying not to shiver as another gust of wind blows through. 

“You look like you’re cold, I’m giving you my jacket,” Gigi tells her decidedly. 

“Gi, no, you totally don’t have to -”

“Here,” Gigi says, pulling off the purple letterman's jacket. 

Gigi drapes the heavy jacket around Crystal's shoulders. The jacket is huge on her, probably because Gigi is so much taller than she is, and it envelopes her in warmth. Crystal can’t help but notice that it smells like vanilla - exactly like Gigi. 

“Thanks,” Crystal blushes as Gigi leans in closer to her. 

“You look  _ really _ good in my jacket and I  _ really _ want to kiss you right now,” the blue-eyed girl murmurs matter-of-factly. 

Crystal’s face heats up more, and although she’s (kind of) gotten used to hearing compliments from Gigi, her brain still seems to short-circuit whenever Gigi says something sweet. 

“Get a room!” Jackie laughs, noticing the romantic tension between the two. 

“Maybe we will,” Gigi responds, raising an eyebrow. “Crystal, I think I left something in my car that I need some help with.” 

“Oh, yeah, the um… the thing!” Crystal stutters out. 

Gigi stands, motioning for Crystal to follow her. 

“I’ll see you girls later tonight! And Jan, make sure to be on time for warm-ups today!” Gigi calls out, waving back at Jackie and Jan. 

“How much longer do we even have at lunch?” Crystal asks once they’re in the parking lot. 

“I don’t know, probably fifteen minutes,” Gigi guesses. 

They walk briskly to Gigi’s car, and the second the doors shut behind them, Gigi captures Crystal’s lips in a heated kiss. 

Crystal is sure that she’ll never get tired of the way that Gigi’s plump lips move softly against her own or the way that Gigi’s hands feel gripping her hips or the way that Gigi always bites down softly on Crystal’s bottom lip after she lightly drags her tongue across it. It’s all nothing short of magic. 

Their kissing becomes increasingly passionate, and before Crystal knows it, Gigi tentatively moves her hands below the older girl’s shirt. Crystal lets out a quiet moan as Gigi’s hands make their way up her hips, her fingertips ghosting over Crystal’s ribcage. 

Crystal knows this is all very “high school”; her best friends at home had  _ countless  _ stories about making out - or more - with boys in their cars. Crystal never thought she’d be one of them, but here she was, teenage hormones raging. 

Crystal’s breath hitches when Gigi’s fingers brush over the side of her chest. Gigi breaks the kiss, still not moving more than a few centimeters away from Crystal. 

“Is… that okay?” she whispers.

Crystal nods, reconnecting their lips. 

Gigi hesitantly places one of her hands over Crystal’s breast and gently presses her hand against it, eliciting a slight gasp from the shorter girl. The blonde caresses her chest, and Crystal can feel her heart racing. She can’t think about anything but Gigi: Gigi’s hand moving languidly against the fabric of her bra, the feeling of Gigi’s heartbeat, the taste of Gigi’s breath in her mouth...

They're interrupted when the lunch bell rings out, loudly enough that the two can hear it even from the confines of Gigi’s car. 

“Fuck,” Gigi stammers. 

“We should uh, get going,” Crystal attempts to slow her breathing. 

“Definitely,” Gigi agrees breathlessly. 

“That was…”

“Yeah.”

“We should… try that again, not in your car,” Crystal says, her cheeks pink. She almost wants to laugh at how completely and utterly  cliché this situation is: if they weren’t both girls, would this not be equivalent to the quintessential high school experience of getting felt up in some boy’s car?

“I’d like that,” Gigi says, regaining her composure. “Ready to go?”

“Yep,” Crystal says, adjusting her shirt. 

They walk into the gates of the school, parting ways at the entrance. 

Crystal realizes she’s still wearing Gigi’s letterman’s jacket and smiles. 

~

“You did  _ what _ ?!” Jackie yells, wide-eyed. 

Crystal and Jackie are sitting in Crystal’s bedroom, getting ready to go to the football game. Crystal could care less about supporting her school’s team, or “school spirit” as Jan referred to it, but she painted purple and white streaks on her cheeks anyways. If anything, she thinks Gigi will find it cute. 

“Yeah,” Crystal replies to Jackie sheepishly.

“Weren’t you scared of someone seeing?! Not even a student, but like, a  _ teacher _ !” 

“Not really, my mind was… elsewhere,” Crystal replies honestly. 

“You’re braver than I am, I’ll give you that,” Jackie mimics Crystal’s idea, dragging purple and white face paint across her own cheeks. “I’m scared to even kiss Jan on the cheek in the car. Or anywhere on campus.”

“Yeah, it might not have been the most responsible idea, in retrospect,” Crystal admits. 

“Just be careful, I’d hate for people to find out about you guys,” Jackie warns. 

“I don’t plan on people finding out,” Crystal assures her. “On that topic, what’s the deal with Jan’s mom?”

“What do you mean?”

“She just… knows about you guys? And lets you have sleepovers?” Crystal elaborates. 

“Yeah,” Jackie smiles. “I remember the day her mom found out. We were laying in her backyard, drinking smoothies, and her mom was supposed to be at the gym. She got home early, I guess, and saw Jan lean in and kiss me.”

“What did she do?”

“She knocked on the window and Jan  _ completely  _ freaked out. She ran inside, and her mom apparently just asked if we were dating, and Jan tried to say it was nothing and completely innocent. Her mom didn’t buy it, and walked outside and asked  _ me _ . I can’t lie, and I thought she was angry, so I said yes and offered to leave.” 

“Was she mad?”

“Oh  _ god  _ no. She gave Jan a hug, and gave me a hug, and said she was happy that if Jan was going to be dating in high school, it was someone like me. It was the first time I’d ever heard that,” Jackie’s eyes light up. 

“That’s insane, and really sweet,” Crystal muses. “My parents are both really great, but I doubt they’d respond like that.”

“Mine definitely wouldn’t. I’d be disowned in a second.”

“I’m sorry, Jackie,” Crystal sympathizes. 

“Don’t be. Jan’s mom does a good enough job at making me feel like I’m a part of their family.”

The two spend the rest of the time getting ready in relative silence. Six o’clock rolls around, and the pair make their way downstairs to ask if Crystal’s mom can drop them off. Jackie doesn’t want to deal with parking at school during a football game. 

“Hey mom! We’re ready to go,” Crystal tells her. 

Her mom looks up at her from the book she’s reading. “Oh honey, you two look  _ adorable _ !” 

“Thanks,” Crystal smiles. 

“Do you need me to pick you up?” Crystal’s mom asks. 

“No, I think we’re staying over at Jan’s - Gigi will drive.” 

“Sounds good!” Crystal’s mom grabs her keys. “Let’s get going, then!”

The car ride is short and sweet; it’s filled with small-talk and her mom’s bad taste in music. 

“Have fun and be safe, girls!” Crystal’s mom calls out as the two exit the car. 

Crystal waves, telling her mom that she loves her, and sets off towards the bleachers with Jackie. 

“So, if I’m being completely honest, I don’t uh, really want to sit in the back the whole time,” Crystal laughs.

“Oh?”

“I mean, I wanna like, cheer on Gigi or whatever,” she says. Crystal is wearing the blonde’s letterman’s jacket, and she feels like the girlfriend of the high school quarterback. 

Except she isn’t Gigi’s girlfriend and Gigi is the head cheerleader. 

“That’s… cute. Okay, well, fine by me,” Jackie shrugs.

The two sit several rows back from the front, far enough away from the over-zealous fans but close enough that they can still see the field, waiting for the game to start. 

“Do you come to these much?” Crystal asks. 

“Not as much as Jan would like, I’m sure,” Jackie shares. “I guess now that I have you to come with, I’ll come more.”

“It’s like a reverse double-date, or something,” Crystal laughs. “I never thought I’d be sitting at a football game for a  _ girl _ ."

“I never thought I’d actually make a friend at this school,” Jackie says seriously, attempting to cover the serious nature of her statement with a laugh.

“Come on, you have other friends, right?”

Jackie shakes her head. “I came out and everyone dropped like flies. That and being the weird Persian kid kind of kills my ability to have a social life.” 

“Geeze, I’m sorry, Jackie.”

“Hey, I’ve got you and Jan, and oddly enough, Gigi is back in my life, so I can’t complain, can I?”

The game starts, and all of the football players make their way onto the field. The cheerleaders run out shortly after, and Crystal cranes her neck to see her favorite blonde. She stands front and center, leading both the audience and the squad in chants. Gigi is bubbly and upbeat and in her element; she dances and kicks and does the splits and Crystal is nothing short of amazed by her. Next to her, Jackie smiles at Jan and waves to her several times when the squad has a break. Jan beams up at her, waving back each time. 

Crystal couldn’t say who won the game, or how many points were scored; she knows next to nothing about sports and was far more entertained by watching Gigi down on the field than the game itself. When the game is over, she and Jackie make their way down to the field to wait for their respective blondes. 

Crystal sees Gigi emerge from the field, a smile painted across her face. 

“Gi, you were  _ awesome _ !” Crystal grins, hugging her. 

“I’m glad you had fun!” Gigi says enthusiastically. 

“Sorry that I sort of stole your jacket,” Crystal apologizes. “You probably wanted it during the game.”

“It looks much cuter on you,” Gigi winks. “Plus, I kind of like seeing you in my jacket.” 

“Gross!” Jan jokes, elbowing Gigi. “Are you lovebirds ready to go?”

“I’m ready,” Crystal nods, and Gigi agrees. 

“Great! Mom said she’d order pizza for us all!” 

The four head to Gigi’s car; it’s less than a five minute drive to Jan’s house from the school.

Jan’s house is surprisingly large; Crystal isn’t used to the gigantic houses that seem to line the streets in Los Angeles. Jan unlocks the door, yelling to tell her mom that she’s home.

Jan’s mom emerges from the kitchen, approaching the door. 

“Hi, sweetie, how was the game?” she hugs Jan.

“It was good, we won!” Jan tells her. 

“Hello, Jackie!” Jan’s mom moves to hug her daughter’s girlfriend. “You look  _ adorable _ with your face painted like that!” 

“Thank you! It was Crystal’s idea.” 

Jan’s mom turns to look at Crystal. “You must be Crystal, the girls have told me so much about you! It’s so nice to meet you.” 

“It’s nice to meet you, too!” Crystal reaches out to shake her hand, and much like her own mother, Jan’s mom pulls her into a hug. 

“We’re big on hugs here, handshakes are for strangers!” 

Crystal laughs; she thinks her mom would get along  _ swimmingly  _ with Jan’s.

“And Gigi, you don’t get to avoid my hugs, either!” Gigi laughs as she’s wrapped in a hug. “I’m so glad to see that you aren’t third-wheeling with these two anymore!” 

“Hey, she  _ never  _ third-wheels!” Jan laughs, faux-scowling at her mom. 

“Well, I’m just happy you have a girlfriend, it’ll give you all some super fun double-dates, I’m sure! You make a cute couple!” 

“Oh, we’re not gi-” Crystal begins to correct her before Gigi talks. 

“Thank you, hopefully Crystal can get Jackie out to more games!” Gigi jokes. 

“Let’s hope! Anyways, what kind of pizza do you girls want?”

~

The four sit on Jan’s living room floor, eating pizza on a mountain of sleeping bags and pillows as  _ It _ plays in the background. Jackie is cowering into Jan, clearly terrified of the movie that her girlfriend  _ insisted  _ that they watch. 

Crystal has seen it before - it’s one of her favorites - and Gigi seems almost as freaked out as Jackie is. The blonde has trapped Crystal’s hand in a death grip and Crystal swears her fingers are losing circulation. She can’t bring herself to care; the sensation of Gigi’s hand in her own is inarguably one of her favorite feelings.

“Why did we have to watch this movie?” Jackie squeaks out. “It’s so… violent.”

“It’s a  _ masterpiece _ , babe!” Jan debates. 

“It’s gory.”

“It’s  _ interesting _ !”

“Whatever you say, darling,” Jackie says, continuing to hide behind Jan. 

Crystal has to stifle a laugh - their exchange is adorably hilarious, and she thinks that they’re perfect for each other. She looks down at Gigi, who has buried her head in Crystal’s arm, and squeezes the blonde's hand. 

Her mind wanders as the movie plays on. Gigi didn’t tell Jan’s mom that they weren’t girlfriends and wonders if Gigi is interested in being exclusive. Crystal hasn’t thought about it much until this point - she’s been enjoying living in the moment with Gigi - but now the thought won’t leave her mind. 

She can see herself in a relationship with Gigi easily. They’ll go on dates and fall asleep next to each other and surprise each other with flowers and Crystal will show up at  _ all  _ of Gigi’s cheer events with enthusiasm. She wants to wear the letterman’s jacket every day, and she never wants to go a day without feeling Gigi’s fingers intertwined with her own. 

Crystal’s thoughts trail on until the end of the movie. Jackie has fallen asleep in Jan’s lap and Jan is lazily stroking her curly, dark hair as she, too, begins to drift off. Gigi is wide awake, still clutching Crystal’s hand. 

“Do you wanna go sit on the porch?” Gigi asks Crystal quietly.

Crystal nods, and the two stand. Gigi has clearly been over to Jan’s house enough that she knows exactly where to go, because she leads Crystal to a sliding glass door. They sit down on the wooden porch in Jan’s backyard, and Crystal lets out a contented sigh as Gigi plants a kiss on her cheek. 

“Thanks for coming tonight. It really, really means a lot to me, Crys.”

“Hey, of course. I like watching you, you look so happy when you’re cheering.” 

“Not as happy as I am when I’m with you,” Gigi hums. 

“That was cheesy,” Crystal jokes, wrapping her arm around the blonde. 

“Look what you’ve done to me, Crystal Elizabeth. You’ve turned me into a complete  _ dork _ ! I’m almost as bad as Jan!” Gigi jokes. 

Crystal can feel butterflies fluttering around in her stomach when Gigi uses her middle name - it feels like a term of endearment. 

“Who said dorky was a bad thing? I happen to think your dorky comments are  _ adorable  _ \- or should I say, a _ dork _ able!” Crystal laughs.

“Okay, now  _ that  _ was bad,” Gigi snorts. 

“You love it.”

“I know.” 

The two sit in silence, wrapped up in each other’s arms, enjoying the cool night air. 

“I actually wanted to talk to you about something,” Gigi breaks the silence. 

“What’s up?” Crystal asks. 

“I hate to be  _ that girl _ that asks this question, but like… what  _ is  _ this?”

Crystal doesn’t know how to answer - she doesn’t know what will be too much for Gigi and doesn’t want to scare the girl off. She doesn’t want to look inexperienced and over-eager. 

“I, uh, I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it,” Crystal lies. 

“Oh.”

“Not that I don’t want to think about it!” Crystal quickly follows up. “What do  _ you  _ think this is?”

“Hey, not fair! I asked you first!” Gigi giggles. 

“I mean, I  _ really  _ like you. Enough that I went to my first high school football game in four years for you.”

“I really like you too, Crystal.”

“So…” Crystal trails off, avoiding the question she knows she needs to ask.

“You’re going to make me be the one to say it, aren’t you?” 

“I have no idea what you mean,” Crystal feigns innocence. 

“Crystal, I want you to be my girlfriend,” Gigi declares.

Crystal presses a light kiss on Gigi’s lips before replying. 

“Gi, I want nothing more than to be your girlfriend.” 

Gigi leans her head on Crystal’s shoulder and throws her arms around the older girl’s waist. Crystal runs her fingers through her blonde hair, pressing gentle kisses to the top of her head as the two sit in a comfortable quietness.

Crystal can’t think of anything better than this. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Feedback is always appreciated, as usual! 
> 
> My Tumblr is lilacdyke if you want to follow me or message me! :-)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote all of this between the hours of 12 am and 6 am in a sleep-deprived haze, so I apologize for any mistakes! I really wanted to get this chapter out to y'all because it's been almost one week since I've updated.

Crystal can’t remember falling asleep, but she definitely remembers waking up. Jackie and Jan had taken the couch that night - presumably falling asleep while the other two girls were talking outside - so Crystal and Gigi had fallen asleep on the floor, atop several sleeping bags. 

Crystal awakens to find her arms wrapped around Gigi, the blonde’s back pressed tightly against her. Gigi’s breathing is slow and soft; not wanting to stir her from her slumber, Crystal gently presses a kiss to Gigi’s head before removing her arm from beneath her and sitting up. Crystal looks around the spacious house, noticing that the lights are on in the kitchen, and tiptoes away. As she approaches the kitchen more closely, she can hear Jackie and Jan giggling amongst themselves discreetly. Crystal feels as if she is encroaching on a private moment of sorts, and hates interrupting, but she’s starting to feel hungry and can’t wait to tell the pair that Gigi is  _ officially  _ her girlfriend. 

“Hey guys, good morning,” Crystal pauses before she walks into the kitchen. 

“Oh, you’re awake!” Jan says.

Jan is sitting on the tile countertop and a mixing bowl filled with thick, yellow-ish liquid rests in her lap. Her nose and cheeks are speckled with white powder - which Crystal decides is pancake mix, according to the blue bag she spots sitting on the table - and Jackie stands beside the blonde cheerleader, suppressing her laughter. 

“You woke up  _ just  _ in time to save me from my  _ menace  _ of a girlfriend. If you’d come in here even a few minutes later, I’d be  _ covered  _ in white powder,” Jan jokes, stirring the mix.

“Oh shush,” Jackie playfully slaps Jan’s knee. 

“How long have you guys been up?” Crystal asks.

“Less than an hour,” Jackie tells Crystal. “If I had it my way, I’d still be over there with Gigi, but  _ this one  _ is an early riser,” Jackie motions to Jan. 

“We figured we might as well make breakfast. We were planning on waking you and Gi up with it,” Jan hops down from the counter. 

“You two are so sweet!” 

“Speaking of Gigi!” Jackie interjects. “We saw you two cuddled up this morning.” 

“It was  _ so  _ cute,” Jan muses. 

“We actually uh, talked about things last night after you guys fell asleep,” Crystal shares. 

“What do you mean?” Jackie raises an eyebrow. 

“Like… talked about  _ us _ and what we are,” Crystal starts, “and what we  _ are  _ is girlfriends. She asked me to be her girlfriend!”

“Oh my gosh!” Jackie and Jan exclaim. 

“You make a cute couple,” Jackie hugs Crystal in congratulations. “I mean cute, but not as cute as Jan and I, obviously,” Jackie teases. 

“They’re  _ definitely  _ giving us a run for our money, though. There should be a competition or something; cutest in the closet, blonde-and-brunette, lesbian couple at Fairfax High, right?” Jan snickers.

The three erupt into laughter until a sleep-laced voice interrupts.

“First of all, if there  _ was  _ a competition, Crystal and I would  _ totally _ kick your asses, and second, I’d like to thank you all for waking me up at eight on a Saturday,” Gigi says as she rubs the sleep out of her eyes. 

“Well, good morning to you, too,” Jackie jokes. 

Gigi yawns and walks over to Crystal, kissing her on the cheek before she puts her arm around her waist. Crystal’s heart flutters when she looks at Gigi; her hair is thrown up into a messy bun and a long, white t-shirt cascades off of her thin frame. Crystal can’t fathom how anyone can look so effortlessly stunning, especially so early in the morning.

“How long have you ladies been awake?” Gigi questions. 

“I just got up about ten minutes ago,” Crystal tells her. 

“We’ve been awake since seven-ish, I think,” Jan replies. 

“Oh my  _ god _ , how are you so alert right now?” Gigi yawns.

“I could sleep for another five hours,” Jackie points out. 

“I probably could too,” Crystal agrees.

“Then what are we all doing awake?!” Gigi groans. 

“Making pancakes,” Jan smiles sweetly. 

Gigi pauses. “You know I love breakfast food.”

“We were planning to tempt you and Crystal out of bed with food,” Jackie informs her. 

Jan cooks while Jackie rummages through the kitchen cabinets, pulling out plates, forks, and creatively decorated mugs as she goes. She begins making coffee as Jan finishes up at the stove. Crystal watches them; they work well together. Crystal can’t imagine Jan without Jackie or Jackie without Jan. 

The four sit down at the wooden table in Jan’s kitchen, each next to their respective partner. Crystal can’t help but admire the simple and sweet domesticity of the scenario. The sun is leaking in through the white linen curtains, spreading a warmth around them, and everyone is still wearing their pajamas. Laughs and smiles reverberate throughout the room while everyone happily sips their coffee and eats. Crystal finds her head on Gigi’s shoulder after they pepper each other with sticky, syrupy kisses. Crystal feels light inside; she can’t think of a better way to spend a sunny Saturday morning. 

“What are you all up to today?” Crystal asks. 

“Jan and I have cheer practice at noon,” Gigi says. 

“And I’m going to work on an essay for government until Jan gets back,” Jackie adds. “What about you, Crystal?”

“Nothing,” Crystal admits. “I should probably study or something, I haven’t been getting much of that done lately,” she nudges Gigi. 

“I guess I should probably take you back home, Crys. It’s almost nine and I have to go rest up for practice today.”

“Okay, for sure,” Crystal nods.

“Thanks for coming, you two,” Jan stands. 

“We should really do this again sometime,” Jackie adds. 

“I’d love that!” Crystal grins. “Do you need help picking up the living room? There are a lot of sleeping bags.”

“I think we should be good, right babe?” Jackie confirms with Jan, who nods her head. 

“Yeah, don’t worry about it!” Jan tells the other couple. 

“I’ll see you later,” Crystal hugs Jackie, and then Jan, before opening the door to leave.

“I’ll see you at practice, Jan!” Gigi calls out. “Bye, Jackie!” 

Crystal laces her fingers with Gigi’s as they make their way down Jan’s driveway. 

“I’m really glad that you and Jan suggested doing this,” Crystal says, getting into the car. 

“Yeah, me too. Having you around makes everything better.” 

Crystal sings along to a song by The Cranberries that she struggles to recall the name of as the warm breeze blows through her hair. For once, the wind pounding in her ears and creating tangles in her thick, curly hair doesn’t bother her. She turns her head to peer over at Gigi, who is intently focused on the road ahead of her, and is absolutely mesmerized. Crystal can’t take her eyes off of the girl sitting next to her; she makes even the most mundane tasks enchanting. 

Gigi cracks a smile and squeezes Crystal’s hand tighter. Crystal deduces that Gigi must have caught her staring and looks away sheepishly. 

“Hey, don’t stop. I like it when you look at me like that,” Gigi quips as they pull up to a stop sign. 

“Like what?” Crystal questions. 

“I don’t know. It’s really sweet... Like you’re dreaming or something.”

Crystal is, once again, at a loss for words. She’s strangely comforted when she sees Gigi’s cheeks turn a rosy pink color, an indication that Crystal isn’t the  _ only one  _ who feels embarrassed when she makes dorky, clich é comments. 

They begin driving again, and Crystal keeps humming along to the song. 

_ Oh, my life _ _   
_ _ Is changing every day _ _   
_ _ In every possible way _ _   
_ _ And oh, my dreams _ _   
_ _ It's never quite as it seems _ _   
_ _ 'Cause you're a dream to me _ _   
_ __ Dream to me

~

Crystal is unable to recall a time in her life when she experienced so much change. Moving to Los Angeles from a small town in Missouri was a huge shift in and of itself; new city, new people, new school, new friends, new house, new life. 

She was expecting those things without a doubt, and even embraced the idea of the move being a metaphorical reset button. As hard as it was to leave her hometown, her friends, her childhood home, and everything she’d ever known behind, she was eager to start fresh.

What she  _ wasn’t  _ expecting was Gigi. Or Jackie. Or Jan. She assumed that her clean slate would mean studying more, drinking less coffee, and maybe changing up her style a little bit. There wasn’t one part of her brain that would have correlated “coming to terms with being gay” and “fresh start”. Life seemed to surprise her. 

Crystal is curled up in her bed, awaiting a call from Heidi. It’s been almost three weeks since she’s talked to her best friend - and three weeks since she got into a relationship with Gigi. Even though Crystal knows she has nothing to fear when she tells Heidi, the words “I’m dating a girl” seem to get stuck in her throat. But she’s determined; she hates keeping secrets, and hates going for long periods of time without talking to Heidi even more. 

The phone suddenly rings and Crystal picks up quickly. 

“Heidi?!” Crystal exclaims. 

“My long-lost best friend!” Heidi yells back. 

“How have you been? How’s school?” Crystal wonders aloud. 

“Oh you know, nothing to write home about, nothing new,” Heidi remarks. “What about you, girl? How’s living in the big city?”

“It’s been great,” Crystal says honestly. “I actually need to tell you something. I have a girlfriend.”

Crystal blurts it out, afraid that if she doesn’t say it now, she won’t say it at all. 

“You  _ huh _ ? You have a  _ what _ ?!” 

“A girlfriend,” Crystal tries keeping a casual tone, but she’s sure that her voice is shaky and high-pitched.

“Gigi?” Heidi asks. 

“Yes.”

“How long?”

“Like, officially? Three weeks, I think.”

“Wow.”

“Are you mad?” Crystal winces, noticing her best friend’s usually peppy demeanor dissipate. 

“No, no, I’m not mad I’m just... processing. So you’re like, gay-gay?” Heidi asks. 

“I mean, I don’t know. I might be. I just know that I like Gigi, a lot.”

“You know I’m happy for you, right? You spent three years watching all of us get asked out on dates and get boyfriends and get our hearts broken, it’s your turn,” Heidi says lightheartedly. 

“Thank you, Heidi,” Crystal feels a wave of relief crash over her. 

“Are you telling people yet?” Heidi asks. 

“No, not yet.”

“I’ll keep quiet then. For once,” Heidi promises. 

“Thank you.”

“I’ve got a bunch of homework, so I better get going.  _ Please  _ call me more,” Heidi implores.

“I will, I swear. I love you,” Crystal says. 

“I love you!” 

Heidi hangs up and Crystal lets out a deep sigh. It feels good to tell someone.

Crystal strains her neck to look over at her clock. It’s a Saturday afternoon and Gigi has asserted that she  _ will be  _ coming over to help Crystal unpack at last. The multitude of boxes still remain, minus two or three that she’s emptied. Gigi can’t believe that Crystal has been living in a room crowded with stacks of boxes for over two months. Crystal likes to think that it’s organized clutter, and blames it on her being an artist.

“Crystal, Gigi is here!” Crystal hears her mom’s voice echo from downstairs. 

“Coming!” Crystal bounces out of bed and quickly leaps down the stairs. 

“Hey Gi!” Crystal has to suppress the urge to kiss the blonde. 

“Hey!” Gigi greets. 

“I hear that you’re going to help my daughter finally clean up that mess of a room!” 

“Mom!” groans Crystal, eliciting a quiet snicker from Gigi. 

“I am, yeah. I told her I wouldn’t come over again until it’s clean, being in there for more than thirty minutes makes me queasy,” Gigi feigns disgust. 

“That makes two of us!” Crystal’s mom agrees. 

“Thanks for being considerate, guys,” Crystal rolls her eyes. “On that note, let’s get started! Come on, Gi,” Crystal starts up the stairs, Gigi trailing behind her. 

“You know,” Crystal starts, shutting her door, “sometimes I think you and my mom like each other more than you like me!” Crystal laughs. 

“You  _ know  _ we’re right about this room, it’s...” Gigi trails off. “Crys, it’s really messy, baby.”

“I know,” Crystal admits. 

“Okay, let’s get this done then,” Gigi is determined. 

“Wait! Don’t I get to kiss you hello or something first?!”

“You just want to procrastinate,” Gigi chides. 

“You’re not wrong, but I also just  _ really  _ like kissing my girlfriend,” Crystal steps closer to the blonde. 

“You are  _ so  _ corny, Crystal Elizabeth,” Gigi smirks as she joins her lips with Crystal’s. 

The taller girl breaks the kiss after several seconds, causing Crystal to huff in frustration. 

“The sooner we unpack, the sooner we can get back to that!” Gigi promises. 

~

“I can’t believe you own _seven_ flannels and had no idea you were into girls,” Gigi giggles. 

“It’s the midwest!  _ Everyone  _ wears flannels, even my mom!” 

“I guess everyone in the midwest is gay, then. Your mom included,” Gigi concludes sarcastically. 

It’s been four hours of going through boxes, hanging up and folding clothes, and putting up decorations. Crystal is tired of it and is thankful that most of her belongings have been unboxed and organized. She admires the way her room has turned out; white fairy lights line the perimeter of her ceiling, colorful tapestries adorn two of the walls, pictures of Crystal, Gigi, Jackie, and Jan join the collection of pictures Crystal has of her friends back home, and her favorite paintings soon are added to the mix. Her clothes are sorted and all that remains of the clutter is a pile of brown cardboard boxes in the corner of her room. 

“I love your maximalist style, we have to get you some posters to hang in here!” Gigi decides, looking around the room.

“More is more,” Crystal agrees with a laugh.

“How does it feel to actually have space to walk around?”

“It’s pretty neat. Thank you so much for your help,” Crystal hugs Gigi. 

“Of course! I told you I’d help you if you ever wanted me to.”

“You’re the best.” 

“I know,” Gigi sarcastically responds. “I have a question for you!”

“Hit me with it,” Crystal says, pulling away from their hug to look at Gigi. 

“So, my birthday is next weekend and my parents are like, pretty strict about people coming over, but I’m going to have the whole cheer squad over to swim and watch a movie and I was wondering if you’d want to come? It’s okay if not, I know that’s  _ a lot  _ of cheerleaders and you won’t know anyone aside from Jan and Jackie and-”

“Of course I want to come,” Crystal cuts the rambling blue-eyed girl off.

“Oh, cool. Awesome. I apologize in advance for pretty much everything my parents say.”

“I’m kind of excited to meet them,” Crystal admits. 

“Don’t be, your mom is  _ much  _ cooler.”

“Even if she is cooler, meeting your parents is a way for me to get to know more about your life, and that’s pretty awesome.”

The pair sit in silence, backs propped up against the wall of Crystal’s bedroom. Gigi uses the quiet moment as an opportunity to press a soft kiss against Crystal’s lips, delicately brushing them together. 

It remains this way for several minutes - tender and gentle - until Crystal’s hands find their way into Gigi’s hair. Crystal pulls the taller girl into a deep kiss, crashing their lips together. Gigi moves to straddle Crystal’s thighs, her knees pressed to the floor aside the older girl’s legs. She cups Crystal’s cheek with one hand and lightly holds onto her waist with the other. Crystal grasps Gigi’s hips as their kisses become more fervid, their tongues meeting and lips meshing together. 

Crystal finds Gigi so intoxicating that she barely registers the sound of her door opening. Crystal jumps, startled when she hears her mom faux-cough. 

“I, uh, wanted to ask if Gigi was staying for dinner...”

“No, I think I’m going to go home tonight,” Gigi answers quickly, her hands trembling. “Thank you for offering.”

Crystal’s mom silently shuts the door. 

“Fuck.”

“Crystal, shit, I’m so sorry, are you okay?” Gigi attempts to comfort her. 

“I don’t know.”

“Can I do anything?” Gigi inquires.

“I um, I think maybe leaving would be good, I need to talk to her,” Crystal stutters. 

“Of course,” Gigi understands. “Please call me later, tell me everything.”

Crystal nods and watches as Gigi stands, gathers her things, and walks out of her bedroom. Crystal can’t find the strength in her legs to walk the other girl out. 

She sits on her floor, attempting to regain composure before she talks to her mom. Her family is accepting but not  _ that  _ accepting; Crystal knows that this is a big deal. She forces herself to shakily stand and make her way down the hall. Her mouth is dry, she can hear her own heartbeat, and she’s convinced that this is some kind of nightmare. 

“Mom?” Crystal knocks on her parents’ bedroom door, trying to sound calm. 

“Come in.”

She can tell instantaneously that her mom has been crying; streaks of tear-infused mascara fall down her cheeks and her eyes are red. She’s sitting on her bed, a box of tissues placed on the nightstand next to her. 

“I’m sorry,” Crystal whispers. 

“I just don’t get it, Crystal.”

“I know.”

“Are you... are you a lesbian?”

“I don’t know.”

“And is Gigi your... you know, your...”

“Girlfriend?”

Her mom nods, exhaling sharply at the word. 

“Yeah. She is.”

“How long has this all been going on?”

“Not very long, a little bit over one month.”

The tension in the room is so palpable that Crystal thinks she could cut it with a butter knife. 

“I’m sorry,” she repeats. 

“You know that what you’re doing with Gigi isn’t right, don’t you?”

The harsh words sting Crystal. She can’t think of anything to say as tears pool in her eyes. 

“Who says it isn’t right?” Crystal manages to squeak out. 

“God, me, your dad, most normal people. Come on, Crystal.”

This time, she can’t hold back the tears. She lets them fall with a silent sob. 

“There’s a lot you don’t know about this entire situation. I don’t want to argue, but I don’t think what you’re saying is fair or constructive,” Crystal declares.

Crystal can’t read her mom’s expression. It’s angry and it’s confused but it’s filled with concern.

“I don’t either,” her mom agrees, taking several deep breaths. 

Crystal sits down next to her mom, hugging her from the side. Minutes tick by wordlessly as Crystal watches the clock. 

“I can’t say I agree with all of this, but if this is you, I’ll learn to deal,” Crystal’s mom breaks the silence. 

“Okay.”

“I’m sorry if I said the wrong things. I’m out of my element here, but I don’t want to lose you, kiddo.”

“You won’t, mom.” 

“Have you always known?”

“No, I had no idea up until last month,” Crystal explains vaguely as her mom nods. 

“And are you happy? With Gigi, with being like this?”

“I am, I’m so happy that it actually surprises me,” Crystal attempts a small smile. “I have great friends and Gigi is, you know, Gigi.”

“If you  _ have  _ to date a girl, I will admit that I’m glad it’s her.”

“Do you hate me?” Crystal blurts. 

“Hate you? Crystal, you’re my  _ daughter _ , I could never hate you.” 

“It’s just that I spend all this time hoping nobody finds out because  _ nobody  _ will be okay with it and I’m so afraid of losing you and dad and it’s been really hard for me to deal with all of this and I hate that I have to keep this part of me and my relationship a secret because people are horrible to anyone different and now I’m  _ really  _ different,” Crystal rambles. 

“Excuse me if I’m saying the wrong thing, but why not just be _ friends  _ with Gigi, then?”

“It’s not that simple, mom,” Crystal attempts to be patient, aware that her mom was raised in a religious, conservative household. “Even if I did break up with Gigi, I’m going to like another girl at some point. I’m not choosing to put myself through all of this for fun.”

Her mom nods. “I love you, Cryssy. Above all else, I love you. I want to understand this, just give me time, please.”

“I love you, too. Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song lyrics I used are from Dreams by The Cranberries! They're a great 90s alt rock band and their music is fantastic, I definitely recommend giving them a listen if you haven't before! 
> 
> Thank you for all of the support! I'm really glad that so many folks are enjoying this fic, your feedback is always appreciated! 
> 
> My Tumblr is @ lilacdyke if any of you want to follow :-)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up, this chapter has a pretty sexual scene in it. I've never tried to write anything like it before, so sorry if it isn't the most well-written!

Crystal calls Gigi immediately after she closes the door to her bedroom. She’s still relatively shaken up and can feel her body trembling as she collapses down onto her bed, phone to her ear. The phone rings for almost twenty seconds and Crystal wonders if Gigi will pick up; she usually answers within seconds. 

“Hello?” an unfamiliar voice answers. 

“Um, hi, I might have the wrong number, I’m sorry,” Crystal starts, wondering if her jittery hands pressed a wrong button, “I’m calling to uh, talk to Gigi?”

The line goes quiet. 

“Hello?” Crystal asks into the phone. 

She doesn’t get a response and contemplates hanging up until she hears Gigi say her name through the phone.

“Crystal?” 

She sounds concerned. 

“Hey, Gi,” Crystal responds.

“Sorry about that, my dad answered the line,” Gigi explains. “How are you holding up? Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. My mom was crying,” Crystal tells her. 

“Wow.”

“Yeah, but we kind of talked it out. She’s not over the moon about the whole thing, but she said she’s going to try to understand me and all of this,” Crystal continues. 

“Does she like, know about  _ us  _ now?”

“I told her that you’re my girlfriend. She kind of assumed that, though, considering what she walked in on,” Crystal tries to joke. 

“Oh,” Gigi’s response is short. 

“What is it, Gi?”

“Isn’t she going to be weird about us spending time together now? What if she doesn’t let you see me?”

“She told me that if I “ _ had _ ” to date a girl, she’s glad it’s you. I don’t think that she’s going to automatically hate you or anything.” 

“I guess it’s good that your mom and I are best friends, huh?” Gigi giggles, lightening the mood. 

“You can’t see me, but I’m  _ definitely  _ rolling my eyes right now,” Crystal retorts with a laugh. 

“You should be thanking me,” Gigi insists playfully. “I’ve got to get going soon, we’re having dinner soon and my parents are probably going to have a billion questions about who called.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you tomorrow, Gi.”

“Bye baby, I’ll miss you,” Gigi says. 

Crystal smiles to herself at her girlfriend’s usage of the pet name and hangs up the phone. She contemplates calling Jackie for advice, or Heidi to vent to, but ultimately decides to take a walk and clear her head. She changes into a pair of black spandex shorts and throws on an old, cropped tie-dye shirt before grabbing her only pair of running shoes from the closet. 

“Mom, I’m going on a walk!” Crystal yells before walking down the stairs. 

“I was just about to head down and finish up dinner, are you sure you don’t want to eat first?” Crystal’s mom inquires as she opens the door to her bedroom. 

“I’m not really hungry,” Crystal tells her honestly. “Plus, it’ll be dark soon and I don’t want to be out after the sun sets.”

“Okay sweetie, be safe,” her mom approves.

Crystal hurries outside, pausing momentarily at the front door to tie her shoes and haphazardly put her long, curly hair into a messy bun. 

The cool air soothes Crystal as soon as she begins walking down the street. A light breeze blows and hazy rays of sunlight shine down from the blue-orange sky; Crystal realizes she has become enamored with the period of time that’s post-daylight, but pre-sunset. The sun stays out until almost 8:00 pm, at least during the summer, creating a lovely two-hour timeframe where everything is less hot, less bright, and less hectic than it is during the day. 

Crystal loves the way that light blue transforms into hues of gold, pink, and orange, she loves the way that the gentle night breeze encapsulates her, and she loves that she can look in any direction and almost certainly see several palm trees somewhere. Los Angeles has slowly grown on her, and she finds herself missing Missouri less and less every day. 

Missouri sure as hell doesn’t have sunsets like this. 

And she doesn’t think that she’s seen more than ten palm trees in her entire life prior to moving.

And Missouri doesn’t have Gigi Goode. 

It doesn’t have houses that look like the ones she’s seen in movies and on magazine covers; once she’s out of her cul-de-sac, a neighborhood filled with nice-but-modest homes, it seems to her that  _ everyone  _ must live in a mansion. Some of the houses are clearly older - they’re made out of bricks, surrounded by white picket fences, and look like they were transported from the 50s to the 90s - but there are more modern homes too. These are the kinds of houses that have four garage doors and long, winding driveways closed off by gates, balconies and bay windows, and are two or three stories tall. 

Crystal silently decides that she does, in fact, like California. She likes it  _ a lot _ , even though she doesn’t think she’s done nearly enough exploring to say that she knows her new city well. 

The sun starts disappearing into the night sky and Crystal is pulled out of her thoughts by the seemingly sudden lack of light. She doesn’t know how long she’s been walking for, or where she is. She knows that she’s in a wealthy neighborhood, but nothing looks familiar, especially as the sky deepens in color. 

“Fuck,” Crystal huffs, realizing she  _ probably  _ should have been paying more attention to where she was going. 

She does her best to regain her awareness, turning around and walking in the direction that she  _ thinks  _ she came from. 

Crystal has never been so lost in her life. She begins to panic, worried that she won’t find her way home. She paces quickly up and down different blocks, searching for any semblance of a recognizable landmark. 

She’s walking up a sixth block when she notices something familiar: a magenta convertible, pulled into the driveway of a three-story white house. 

Crystal knows that if she rings the doorbell, there’s a good chance that her girlfriend will  _ not  _ be the one to answer. 

She also knows that she’s completely lost and that as the minutes tick by, the chance of her finding her way home gets slimmer. 

She’s sure it can’t be much past 8:15 - she hopes it isn’t - and sucks in a deep breath, exhaling quickly before making her way up the driveway. 

Crystal can’t see much, but she can tell from the size of the home alone that Gigi’s family is more than well off. She doesn’t know why the thought makes her nervous; she assumes it’s because she’s from a working-class family and doesn’t really know how the upper echelon live. 

Her hand is balled in a fist at her hip. She stands less than one foot away from the door. 

_ All it’s going to take is a few knocks. You can do it. It’s going to be fine. _

Crystal tries reasoning with herself and raises her arm, preparing to thump her fist into the wooden door. 

“Crystal? Is that you?”

_ Oh, thank god. _

“Gigi, oh my gosh, you have no idea how glad I am to see you,” Crystal spins, breathing a sigh of relief., 

“What are you doing? How do you know where I live?”

“I-I don’t,” Crystal stutters, realizing it might be just a  _ little  _ bit weird to show up at her girlfriend’s door unannounced and uninvited. “I was on a walk and I got super lost and I saw your car…” she trails off. 

“Oh,” Gigi looks relieved, and then giggles. “You’re a genius.”

“Very funny,” Crystal deadpans, a smirk quickly eclipsing her face. “What are you doing out right now, anyways?” Crystal asks curiously. 

“Uh,” Gigi pauses. “I was smoking,” she admits hesitantly. 

“You know that’s  _ really  _ bad for you, right Gi? Tobacco can cause cancer-” Crystal’s concerned ramble is interrupted. 

“Not tobacco.”

“What?”

“Oh my gosh Crys, you can be so  _ clueless  _ sometimes,” Gigi laughs. “Weed. I was smoking weed. Marijuana. Pot.” 

“I should’ve guessed that,” Crystal admits sheepishly. 

“I have to sober up a little bit, but I’ll drive you home, dork. Let’s try to sneak back in without my parents seeing you, okay?”

“You got it, babe,” Crystal agrees. “Can I borrow your phone to let my mom know I’m alive? She’s probably freaking out.”

“Of course,” Gigi says, approaching the door.

The inside of Gigi’s house is museum-esque. The walls are pearly white and what Crystal gauges to be rather expensive pieces of art decorate them. There’s a big, spiral staircase and marble floors and chandeliers and leather couches and a big television and Crystal feels like she’s in a completely different world. 

“Wow, this place is-”

“ _ Shh _ !” Gigi reminds the shorter girl, who clasps a hand over her mouth. 

They make their way up the stairs - Crystal almost remarks that she thought spiral staircases only existed in movies and feels like a princess going up one - and Gigi directs them into a room to the right of the stairs. 

It’s pastel pink, full of posters and cheerleading trophies, and has a walk-in closet; it’s very Gigi. 

“Your house is fucking  _ huge _ , what the  _ fuck _ !” Crystal punctuates. 

“I like yours better, anyway.”

“My house doesn’t look like the lobby of a fancy hotel!” Crystal points out. 

“But at least it feels lived in.” 

The two sit in a momentary silence before Gigi hands Crystal a black phone.

“Thank you so much,” Crystal begins dialing her house phone.

“Just… try to be super quiet. And...” Gigi hesitates, “maybe you could uh, like, stay over? If you want. It’s kind of late-ish.”

Crystal nods, waiting for her mom to answer. 

“Hello?” 

“Mom, it’s me, I got lost,” Crystal explains hurriedly. 

“You’re safe,” her mom breathes a sigh of relief. “I was starting to get worried. Where are you?”

Crystal pauses, wondering if her mom will be upset. “I’m at Gigi’s.”

“You told me you were going on a walk. You know, I’m okay with you two seeing each other, Cryssy. You didn’t need to lie,” her mom lectures. 

“No, mom, it was an accident. Seriously. I got lost, I saw her car, and I went up to her door because I was freaking out. I didn’t even know where she lived before, I swear.”

“Okay, honey. Is Gigi taking you home or should I come get you?”

“Actually, I was kind of wondering if I could just stay over here?” Crystal havers. 

“At Gigi’s?” her mom asks. 

Crystal can’t read her tone. 

“Yeah, if that’s okay.”

“Gigi is your girlfriend.”

“Yeah,” Crystal confirms. 

“I wasn’t asking, I’m just trying to think this through. If you had a boyfriend, I wouldn’t let you have a sleepover with him.”

“It’s different and we’ve had sleepovers before. Those were fine!” Crystal contends. 

“It’s hardly different and those sleepovers were always with other friends anyways, sweetie.”

“ _ Mom _ ,” Crystal complains. 

She wants to fall asleep in Gigi’s arms tonight, more than anything. 

“Fine, fine. We need to discuss this more tomorrow. Don’t start thinking that  _ this  _ will be a frequent occurrence.” 

“Thank you, mom!” Crystal smiles.

“Good night, I love you. And tell Gigi good night for me.”

She hangs up the phone. 

“My mom said good night. She said she wouldn’t let me sleepover with a boyfriend, and didn’t seem super excited about me staying here, but I can stay. Are your parents going to be mad?”

“They won’t know if you leave early enough, I can drop you home on my way to practice,” Gigi informs her. 

“What if they come check on you?”

Gigi laughs dryly, “They don’t care enough to do that. And my door has a lock anyways.”

Crystal nods, suddenly hyper-aware of the fact that she and Gigi will be sleeping in a room together, alone, in the same bed. 

“Wanna watch a movie?” Gigi asks, motioning to the television. 

“Sure, what do you have in mind?”

“I’ve been really wanting to watch  _ Ghost  _ lately,” Gigi tells her. 

“That sounds good to me!”

“Do you want to borrow some pajamas? I’m probably going to change into mine before we start the movie.” 

“Yeah, sure, that’d be nice!”

Gigi walks over to a light brown chest and rifles through it, pulling out two pairs of matching shorts, a t-shirt, and a hoodie. 

“Hoodie or shirt?” she asks Crystal, holding them up. 

“Hoodie, you know I get cold  _ so  _ easily!” 

Gigi tosses the gray hoodie to Crystal, along with a pair of blue shorts, before she begins changing. 

Crystal’s breath hitches and she instantaneously feels a wave of self-consciousness flood over her as Gigi begins to pull the tight, red and black tank top that she’s been wearing over her head. Crystal allows herself to look at Gigi’s thin, toned stomach for a fraction of one second before tearing her eyes away. She spins around, facing the wall on the opposite side of the room, and scrambles to pull on the hoodie and shorts Gigi lent her. 

It’s not that Crystal thinks she’s ugly by any means - she knows she’s not. But Gigi is practically a model: she’s tall, she’s athletic, she’s thin, she’s statuesque. Crystal isn’t  _ not  _ thin, but the shorts that hang loosely off of Gigi’s thighs are skin-tight against Crystal’s. 

“You can turn around now,” Gigi suppresses a laugh laced with sarcasm. 

“Sorry, I didn’t want to be weird or whatever,” Crystal blushes, feeling prudish. 

“Don’t be, it’s cute,” Gigi winks, flopping down onto her bed. “Also, your ass looks  _ so good _ in those.” 

“Thanks,” Crystal squeaks out as she sits down next to her girlfriend. 

“Let’s start the movie before it’s super late, I want to make sure we both get some sleep tonight.”

~

If someone asked Crystal what  _ Ghost  _ was about, she wouldn’t be able to tell them. Her lips found themselves on Gigi’s within minutes of starting the movie. All it took was Gigi pressing one kiss into Crystal’s neck and she was gone. 

Crystal finds herself lying beneath the blonde, sprawled out on her bed. Gigi’s mouth is everywhere; she’s covering Crystal’s cheeks in soft kisses, and then pressing them to her jawline. She moves down towards Crystal’s neck once again. Gigi gently bites down, eliciting a gasp from Crystal, and sucks the sensitive skin. Crystal is sure she’s going to have more than a few marks on her neck, but can’t find it in herself to care. 

Gigi migrates back up to Crystal’s lips, capturing them in a heated kiss. Crystal can feel Gigi’s hands making their way under her sweatshirt. Her skin burns under Gigi’s touch and the feeling of Gigi’s fingertips on the bare skin of her hips sends a shiver up her spine. The blonde’s hands continue to move, stopping just below Crystal’s cleavage. 

Crystal, feeling more bold than usual, pulls Gigi’s hand up to cup her breast and presses it down. Gigi takes the hint, massaging Crystal’s breasts. 

“Shirt off?” Gigi’s voice is raspy and Crystal melts at the sound. She sits up, fumbling with the heavy material of the hoodie before pulling it off. 

“If I have to take mine off, so do you!” Crystal jokes in an attempt to mitigate the seriousness of the moment. “I mean, only if you want to, obviously. I didn’t mean that you  _ have  _ to take it off or anything, I just-” 

Gigi removes her shirt in one fluid motion and even though the lighting is dim, Crystal is convinced that she sees Gigi affectionately roll her eyes before cutting Crystal off with a kiss. 

Gigi is straddling Crystal’s lap, both of her hands tangled in Crystal’s hair. Crystal’s hands explore Gigi’s body; she finds her hands squeezing Gigi’s ass and hips as Gigi presses herself into Crystal, rocking against one of her thighs. 

Crystal shakily moves her hands to touch Gigi’s breasts. Her hands hover over them lightly at first. Whether it was because Crystal was inexperienced or because she was nervous about messing something up, she’d never even  _ seen  _ Gigi without a shirt on.

“Crys, please,” Gigi moans out between kisses. 

Crystal is pulled from her thoughts and presses her palms against her girlfriend’s cleavage. Gigi groans as Crystal gently twists her nipples between her fingers and when Gigi allows a breathy “ _ fuck _ ” to escape her lips, Crystal can feel the wetness pooling between her thighs. 

Gigi pushes against Crystal’s shoulders softly, and the older girl falls back against the mattress. Gigi immediately takes one of Crystal’s hardened nipples into her mouth, swirling her tongue around it as she caresses Crystal’s other breast with her hand. Crystal is writhing beneath her, biting her lower lip in an attempt to suppress a slew of curse words and loud moans that threaten to fly out of her mouth. 

Gigi’s mouth moves down Crystal’s body, pausing occasionally to bite and suck at the more sensitive areas of Crystal’s skin. Crystal feels Gigi stop just above her waist. 

“Can I go down on you?” Gigi asks. 

Crystal nods before realizing Gigi can’t see her in the dark. 

“Yes.”

Gigi hooks her thumbs around the elastic of Crystal’s shorts and underwear and pulls them down. Crystal can hear her heart pounding in her ears, more nervous than she thinks she’s ever been, and Gigi spreads her thighs apart delicately. 

“You’re beautiful,” Gigi says before beginning to pepper kisses along the inside of Crystal’s left thigh. 

Crystal doesn’t know why she’s so terrified - it’s not like she’s even  _ doing anything _ \- but she can feel her body trembling. 

“Hey, Gi, wait a second,” Crystal stammers. 

“Are you okay?” Gigi questions, concerned. 

“Yeah, I uh,” Crystal inhales shakily, “I think I’m not ready for this yet, I’m sorry.” 

“Oh my gosh, Crys, don’t be sorry, baby! It’s okay!” Gigi lays down next to Crystal. “I didn’t mean to make you feel pressured, I’m sorry if that’s what happened.”

“No, you didn’t, I was really, really,  _ really  _ enjoying all of that, I just um, haven’t ever done this.”

“You’ve never been with a girl?” Gigi inquires. 

“With anyone,” Crystal corrects her quietly. 

“We can take things as slow as you want to,” Gigi reassures her, pressing a kiss into her cheek. 

“Thank you, Gi,” Crystal smiles, cuddling into Gigi’s side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed! I've already started working on the next chapter, so I'm thinking that I might actually be able to post another chapter in a day or two. Thank you all for reading! Feedback is always super, super appreciated!   
> My Tumblr is lilacdyke if anyone wants to follow me or shoot me a message! :-)


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, I want to apologize for taking so long to update. I've been really caught up with my involvement in the protests and have wanted to focus on being present there, and along with finals week starting soon, I've been super busy. I'd like to encourage everyone to go out and protest, donate to bail funds, and continue raising awareness about police brutality and systemic racism. Thank you for being so patient as I wrote this chapter! I apologize in advance for any errors, I didn't have as much time to edit as I would have liked to.

When Crystal walks in the door on Sunday morning, her mom is waiting for her at the kitchen table. She’s flipping through the newspaper absentmindedly and sipping what Crystal imagines is mint tea out of a white mug. The older woman peers up from the paper when she hears the door shut softly behind Crystal. 

Crystal doesn’t have to be told to take a seat in one of the four empty chairs; her mom’s gaze says it all. She doesn’t look remotely thrilled with Crystal’s one-day-late arrival home, and the already displeased look on her face only intensifies when the red-purple blemishes that cover Crystal’s neck catch her eye. 

“Good morning,” Crystal starts, pulling out one of the chairs and taking a seat directly across from her mother. “I’m  _ really  _ sorry. Getting lost was an accident, I mean it.”

“I believe you,” her mom exhales. “I don’t want what happened last night to happen again. You’re still my child living under my roof and on top of it all, I really don’t like seeing all of this,” she glares at Crystal’s neck. 

Crystal feels the hot flush of embarrassment flood to her face, coloring her cheeks red, and she suddenly wishes she was wearing a scarf or a turtleneck, hot weather be damned. 

“It won’t happen again,” Crystal assures her, voice squeaking. 

They momentarily sit in an awkward silence and Crystal wishes she was anywhere other than where she found herself. She fiddles with her hands in her lap and suddenly, counting the differently colored tiles of her kitchen floor becomes the single most entertaining activity on the planet. 

“Are you and Gigi being… safe?” her mom breaks the silence with a hesitant question.

If Crystal wanted to disappear before, she sure as hell did now. 

“Um, we’re-we’re not really, like doing-” Crystal begins to stutter before she’s interrupted. 

“I don’t even know how to have this conversation, Cryssy. I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know if there’s anything  _ to  _ tell you,” she rambles. “And I thought this conversation was hard to have when you were thirteen,” she adds with a groan, exasperated. 

“We’re not doing anything!” Crystal blurts louder than she would have preferred to. 

“Okay, well, that’s good, that’s great,” her mom nods, pressing her lips tightly together. 

“Can I go upstairs?” Crystal cringes, scrambling to end the conversation. 

“Yes.”

“Great. I’ll come down to make breakfast in a bit,” Crystal quickly stands hurries her way upstairs. 

If there was one conversation she didn’t think that she’d ever have, it would without a doubt be that one. She knows her mom was just trying to do the “responsible thing”, but god, she does  _ not  _ want to  _ ever  _ talk about lesbian sex with her mother who she’s sure is even more clueless than she is. 

Crystal makes it into the safe haven that is her room and grabs her planner. She didn’t get any schoolwork done the previous night and knows she has at least three assignments due the following day; on top of that, it’s nearing the end of October and she knows midterms are rapidly approaching. A wave of relief crashes over her when she realizes two of the three assignments are small projects for her art class, and the other is a brief chapter reading. 

Crystal elects to start painting. 

She hasn’t been picking up her paintbrushes as much as she used to; she has Gigi - and she has Jackie and Jan - and all of a sudden, she’s spending less time alone in her room and more time with her girlfriend and her friends. 

She does miss painting, though. 

The feeling of a brush being skillfully stroked along a blank canvas is cathartic; Crystal recalls endless nights of sitting on a paint-splattered sheet, cross-legged in her bedroom, doing exactly this. She’s happy when she’s immersed in a painting. Her mind is at ease and any problems she’s had dissipate.

The assignment she’s been given is broad, thankfully; Ms. Velour instructed the class to procure a landscape painting without any other specifications.

Crystal finds herself almost automatically painting the off-white canvas with hues of blue. Of course, Gigi is indirectly inspiring her artwork. The lighter shades of blue remind Crystal of Gigi’s eyes, and the darker ones of the beach date that Gigi took her on.

Crystal is pretty sure that she’s a big, gay clich é and she’s more than okay with that. 

~

Jackie picks Crystal up bright and early on Monday morning. Jan is already sitting in the front seat, iced coffee in her right hand and her left hand resting on Jackie’s thigh.

“Good morning!” Crystal chimes as she settles into the car, shutting the door behind her. 

“G’morning!” Jan responds in her usual upbeat tone, handing Crystal her usual coffee order. 

“Morning,” Jackie echoes, less enthusiastic than her girlfriend. 

It’s only six, an hour and a half earlier than Jackie usually arrives, and not even caffeine is enough to pull both brunettes in the car out of their exhaustion. The cheer squad has an early morning practice and for whatever reason Jackie is  _ still  _ insistent upon driving Jan to school, even though Gigi offered to pick the blonde girl up. 

“Thanks for the coffee,” Crystal says appreciatively. 

“No problem! Sorry for pulling you both out of bed so early,” Jan apologizes. 

“No big deal,” Jackie hums, her eyes intently focused on the road in front of her. 

“Why do you have practice this morning, anyways?” Crystal wonders. 

“I guess it’s because our coach thinks we need an extra hour and doesn’t want to keep us at school past five,” Jan pauses. “On an unrelated note, you’re both going to Gigi’s birthday party on Friday, right?”

“Yeah, I definitely am!” Crystal had almost completely forgotten about the party, but she doesn’t let Jan know that. 

“What about you, Jacks?” Jan questions. 

“Yes, but only since you’ll both be there. Spending the night with a bunch of giggly, boy-crazy cheerleaders wouldn’t usually be my cup of tea,” Jackie says sarcastically. 

“Very funny,” Jan rolls her eyes lovingly. “What are you girls dressing up as?”

Crystal was unaware that it was a costume party; Gigi hadn’t mentioned it, but it makes sense considering that Halloween falls on the Monday after Gigi’s party.

“I don’t know if I’m going to dress up,” shrugs Jackie. 

“I didn’t think it was a costume party, so I don’t really have anything planned,” Crystal shares. 

“Oh, you girls  _ have  _ to dress up! That’s half the fun!” Jan argues. 

“What are you going as?” Crystal questions Jan. 

“Well, the cheer team is just trying to come up with a theme, but the most popular idea is just to dress up as a “sexy” something or another.”

“Very original,” Jackie laughs dryly. 

“Hey, you won’t be complaining when I’m wearing a skintight bodysuit or something!” Jan jokes, causing Jackie to blush. 

~

Crystal is nervous; the idea of meeting Gigi’s parents absolutely  _ terrifies  _ her, the thought of spending all night with the whole cheer squad makes her heart race, and she feels uncharacteristically insecure in the costume she’s currently wearing. She knows that everyone will be wearing something revealing - at least according to Jan - and the feeling that she’s going to look out of place in a red leather skirt and orange turtleneck overwhelms her. Although the outfit hugs her body and the skirt barely covers her mid-thighs, she has a suspicion that she’ll be the most-dressed person at the party. 

She hadn’t intended on dressing up initially, but after convincing from both Jan and Gigi, she’s decided to go as Velma from Scooby Doo. It was her favorite cartoon as a child, and the costume itself was so simple that she was able to rummage through her closet and use clothes she already owned for the costume. 

Crystal isn’t typically self-conscious - she’s confident in her soft curves and smooth, tan skin - but tonight, she’s looking in the mirror with a critical eye. The entirety of the cheer squad is thin, modelesque, and beautiful, and Crystal can’t help but feel slightly apprehensive when she stares at herself. She’s not  _ not  _ thin; nobody would call her overweight. But her thighs are thick, she’s not a size 2, and she’s sure that her bra size is larger than any of the girls she’ll be seeing tonight. 

Crystal tries to push the negativity out of her head as she finishes doing her make-up. She curls her eyelashes, throws on a little too much blush, paints her lips a bright red color, and blends red eyeshadow onto her eyelids. She feels satisfied enough with the way her face looks, grabs a pair of black, high-heeled boots, and walks downstairs to wait for Jackie to pick her up. She sits down on the couch and contemplates putting her hair into a ponytail or a bun, now longer than usual because she’s straightened the curls out of it, to keep it from getting in her face.

“You look cute, Cryssy!” Crystal hears her mom’s voice call out from behind her. 

“Thanks mom,” Crystal smiles. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear this much make-up!” she comments. 

“I feel like I’m going to wake up covered in pimples tomorrow,” Crystal jokes. “Oh, Jackie invited me to sleepover at her house after the party. Can I?”

“Just you and Jackie?” Crystal’s mom questions, raising an eyebrow. 

“Yes mom,  _ just  _ Jackie and I,” Crystal lies through her teeth - all of the girls are sleeping over at Gigi’s, but her mom doesn’t need to know that.

“That’s fine, then. What time will you be home tomorrow?”

“I think probably pretty early, I have homework,” Crystal explains. 

The doorbell rings, indicating Jackie’s arrival. Crystal jumps to her feet, waving goodbye to her mom as she opens the door. 

“Have fun, honey! I love you!” the older woman calls out. 

“Love you, too!” Crystal says before walking outside. 

“You look so cute!” Jackie beams. “I love the turtleneck!” 

“Thanks!” Crystal grins. “You do, too! I’m guessing Jan helped with all of this?”

Jackie is wearing a purple and silver cheer uniform that Crystal assumes belongs to Jan. It’s nothing like anything Jackie usually wears - she sticks to knee-length skirts or dresses, t-shirts, plaid pants, and sweaters - and Crystal can see the same insecurity that plagues her own mind in Jackie’s face.

“Yeah, I know that we’re supposed to be keeping our costumes a secret, but I couldn’t think of anything else,” Jackie blushes. 

“Well, you  _ really  _ do look like a cheerleader! I would have barely recognized you!” 

Crystal piles into the front seat of Jackie’s car, and the two are off. She doesn’t know what to expect from the night; she knows that they’ll be early and that Jan is probably already there helping Gigi set up, but after people start arriving, she has no idea what will happen. 

“Crys?” Crystal is pulled from her thoughts by Jackie’s voice. 

“Hm?”

“We’re here.”

“Oh, cool,” Crystal unbuckles her seatbelt. Jackie isn’t doing the same. 

“I’m really nervous. I feel like people are going to laugh at me.”

“Jackie, hey, that’s not true. You look great! Nobody is going to laugh at you, and if they do, you  _ know  _ Jan will be right there with you.”

“I just know that none of them like me. They all think I’m a freak.”

“If they all think you’re a freak, then they think I’m a freak, too. Who cares? We’re going to have fun regardless, with Gigi and Jan and each other!” Crystal gives Jackie an encouraging smile. 

“You’re right,” Jackie exhales. “Let’s head in.”

They walk up the long driveway to Gigi’s door, and Jackie knocks. They don’t have to wait long before Gigi pulls open the door, Jan standing behind her. 

Crystal is sure she looks like a dumbstruck mess as soon as she sees Gigi - more specifically, Gigi’s costume.

The usually blonde-haired girl has on a realistic looking, orange-red wig, and she’s wearing a tight, short, dark purple dress with green buttons down the front. A matching green headband adorns the top of her head, and fishnet tights that are a lighter shade of green cover Gigi’s legs.

If Crystal thought she was a big, gay clich é before, she sure as hell was now. 

They hadn’t talked about their respective costumes with each other, sticking to the idea that the costumes should be kept a secret until the night of the party, but still somehow ended up with coordinating looks. 

They have been standing in silence for several moments, staring each other up-and-down, until Jan cackles loudly. 

“And I thought  _ Jackie  _ and I were a walking stereotype,” she laughs loudly. 

“I hope the squad doesn’t think anything of it,” Gigi rolls her eyes. “Come in and help us finish setting everything up! Oh, and you’ll have to meet my parents, Crys.”

Crystal nods silently, following Jackie inside. 

“Jan, do you and Jackie want to finish up the punch in the kitchen while I take Crystal up to say hi to my mom and dad?”

"Sure!” Jan agrees, grabbing Jackie’s hand. 

“You look really hot,” Gigi whispers quietly. “I love the skirt.”

“Thanks, you too,” Crystal squeaks. 

Her mind is a mess, her palms are sweaty, and she can barely formulate a sentence: she’s about to meet Gigi’s parents for the first time, who her girlfriend has been concerningly vague about, and the nervous anticipation is killing her. 

They walk up a flight of stairs, and stop in front of two big, white doors. 

“Okay, so, they obviously don’t know about us and they think that you’re a new girl on the cheer squad - sorry. They’re pretty judgy and the whole “we met in art class” thing isn’t going to fly,” Gigi apologizes. 

"I just want them to like me,” Crystal expresses. 

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Gigi assures, and Crystal holds her breath as she knocks on the door. 

Gigi’s parents are exactly who Crystal thought they would be. Her mom appears to be in her late forties, and has obviously had a lot of work done. She’s taller than Crystal, but not quite as tall as Gigi, and has white-blonde hair. She’s wearing a medium-length, plain, black dress and in Crystal’s mind, looks like the human example of wealth. Gigi’s dad is a bigger man - both in stature and weight - and is probably in his fifties. He has a salt-and-pepper bear and he’s bald; he at least looks less intimidating than Gigi’s mom. 

“Hi Mr. and Mrs. Goode, I’m Crystal, it’s nice to meet you,” the brunette chokes out. 

“Hello,” Gigi’s mom extends a hand and Crystal quickly shakes it. 

“It’s nice to meet you,” her dad smiles, which is at least semi-comforting to Crystal considering Mrs. Goode is giving her an icy stare. 

“Thank you for having me over,” Crystal says politely. 

“Of course,” Gigi’s mom acknowledges her. “Georgina, your father and I are about to leave. Do you need anything?” 

“No, thank you for asking,” Gigi responds. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“We’ll call you when we’re on our way home. Happy birthday, darling,” Mr. Goode hugs his daughter. 

Gigi leads Crystal away, directing her towards her room. Crystal doesn’t think that the meeting had gone poorly by any means, but it was a bit tense and awkward. 

“Glad that’s over,” Crystal jokes, pretending to wipe sweat off of her forehead. 

“That was leaps and bounds better than Jackie’s first time meeting them. Jackie cried,” Gigi tells her. “They don’t even know that she’s here.” 

“Geeze.”

“They’re going to be gone all night tonight, though. I don’t think they wanted to stick around to babysit a bunch of high school girls. I won’t say that I’m not relieved, my birthday will be much more fun without them here to ruin it,” Gigi half-jokes.

“Happy birthday, by the way,” Crystal pecks her on the lips. “How does it feel to  _ officially  _ be an adult?”

“Honestly? No different,” Gigi laughs. “Okay, we should probably get back downstairs before Jackie and Jan end up with each other’s tongues down their throats.”

Crystal presses another chaste kiss to Gigi’s lips - careful to not smudge either of their lipstick - and walks downstairs. 

Jan and Jackie are finishing up the punch - which Crystal soon learns is spiked with flavored vodka - and Gigi tells the group that people will start arriving at eight. 

It’s 7:50 when the doorbell rings for the first time. Gigi opens the door to greet Jaida and Nicky, who smile upon seeing Crystal and Gigi’s accidentally-coordinated costumes. Jaida is dressed as a cat, and Crystal can’t really  _ tell  _ what Nicky is supposed to be, but the tight, red dress she’s wearing looks great on her anyways. 

People start quickly flowing in the door shortly after the first two girls arrive. Dahlia, Aquaria, Violet, Pearl, and Naomi are next, followed by Katya, Brooke, Aja, and Farrah. 

Crystal feels lost in the crowd of sexy vampires, nurses, animals, and movie characters; she and Jackie stick to each other like glue, watching the girls interact. 

Jackie’s eyes often follow Jan, who’s dressed in a lifeguard uniform, and Crystal hopes her appreciation of Gigi’s sultry costume isn’t nearly as obvious. 

The party is in full-swing with music blaring, drinking, and lots of gossiping about the “cutest boys in school”; Crystal and Jackie play their own game of “how-much-can-we-drink-before-this-is-interesting” and giggle amongst themselves about their girlfriends. 

“Crystal, Jackie, we’re going to go  _ swimming _ !” Jan announces, slightly tipsy and over-excited. 

“I didn’t bring a swimsuit,” Crystal pretends to be apologetic, not exactly eager to have her body on display in front of everyone. 

“You can borrow one of mine!” Gigi decides, grabbing Crystal’s arm and pulling her towards the stairs. 

“It’s fine, really, I can just put my feet in,” Crystal tries. 

“No, come on! Remember how I went swimming with you when you asked me to?!” Gigi smirks. 

Crystal can’t argue with that, so the next thing she knows, she’s wearing one of Gigi’s hot pink bikinis and being dragged outside. 

Jackie and Jan sit together on one of the lounge chairs, too intoxicated to realize that they  _ might  _ be a tad bit over-affectionate with each other, and the rest of the girls splash around in the pool, shrieking when their make-up and hair is inevitably ruined. 

Gigi pulls Crystal into the pool with her and Crystal suddenly doesn’t care about the way her body looks in the swimsuit or what the other girls might think of her. She joins them in their laughter and splashing, periodically making subtle eye contact with Gigi. 

~

It’s almost eleven by the time everyone has changed from their swimsuits into their pajamas and made their way into the living room to watch a movie. They’ve collectively decided on  _ Pretty Woman _ , which is apparently one of Gigi’s favorite movies. Gigi, Crystal, Jan, and Jackie squeeze onto the couch, covered by a thin blanket, and everyone else settles on their sleeping bags on the floor. In the dark, Gigi’s fingertips dance across Crystal’s thighs, leaving goosebumps in their trail. The taller girl’s hand eventually finds Crystal’s, and she loosely laces their fingers together beneath the blanket. Crystal presses her body against Gigi’s, trying to close any space that’s left between them. 

By the time the movie is halfway through, Jackie is asleep on Jan’s shoulder and most of the other girls have fallen asleep. Crystal is, somehow, wide awake, but gradually losing interest in whatever’s happening on the screen as Gigi begins to move her hand under Crystal’s shirt. She brushes her fingers across the bare skin of Crystal’s hips and Crystal shudders. Gigi is smirking knowingly, and Crystal has to muster all of her self-restraint to not wipe said smirk off of her girlfriend’s face with a kiss. 

The movie drags on, and by the time it’s over, Gigi’s hand is dangerously close to Crystal’s breast. Crystal is almost certain that everyone is asleep, but she’s not about to start anything with Gigi in front of everyone. 

Gigi seems to read Crystal’s mind and nudges her, motioning for her to get up. They carefully tiptoe across the sea of sleeping bags and Crystal silently prays that the sound of their feet climbing the stairs doesn’t stir anyone awake. 

Gigi’s lips are on Crystal’s neck the second the door shuts behind them, and Crystal is letting out unrestrained moans as Gigi presses her small frame against the wall. 

Seeing Gigi in that costume had been driving her wild all night, and she thinks that Gigi feels the same. 

Gigi makes haste of helping Crystal out of her pajama shirt and throws her own shirt to the ground. The feeling of Gigi’s chest pressing against her own makes Crystal’s knees weak, and she digs her hands into Gigi’s hips to steady herself. When Gigi lowers her head to take one of Crystal’s hardened nipples into her mouth, Crystal can’t stop the loud slews of “ _ Oh fuck”  _ that come out of her mouth. This apparently just eggs Gigi on, as she swirls her tongue around one nipple and massages Crystal’s other breast with her hand. Crystal’s hands find their way into Gigi’s hair, tangling themselves into her long locks. 

Gigi sucks her way up Crystal’s chest, connecting their lips once again in a passionate kiss, and slides one of her legs between Crystal’s. 

"Can I take these off?" she motions towards Crystal's shorts. 

"Yes, please," Crystal groans as Gigi pulls down the shorts, leaving her in just a pair of black, lacy underwear. 

Gigi’s thigh meets Crystal’s center and if Gigi wasn’t holding her up against the wall, Crystal is sure that her trembling legs would have given out by now. 

“You’re so fucking hot baby, so wet for me,” Gigi groans a little too loudly. 

Crystal grinds against Gigi and wraps her arms around her neck. She moves against Gigi’s thigh with a desperation and desire that she didn’t know was possible. The thin fabric of Crystal’s panties is soaked, and as Gigi presses her leg up against Crystal with more force, Crystal is about ten seconds from asking - begging - Gigi to fuck her. 

Until there’s a knock on the door. 

The two pull apart instinctually, neither thrilled with the idea of repeating the scene from when Crystal’s mom walked in on them. 

“Sorry, we’re just uh, changing,” Gigi’s voice is shaky, but convincing enough. 

“It’s me, Jackie. Um, can I come in?”

“Yeah, yeah one second, Jackie,” Gigi tells her as she bends down to pick up her shirt, tossing Crystal’s to her in the process. 

Once they’re both covered, Gigi opens the door. Jackie’s face is pale, even in the dimly lit room, and she looks concerned. 

“So, Dahlia woke up and I guess she needed to use the restroom, but Jan and I were in the one downstairs,” Jackie sheepishly admits. 

“Anyways, she uh, told everyone that she heard some…  _ stuff  _ up here.”

“What  _ stuff _ , Jackie?” Gigi presses.

“She told everyone that she heard you two fucking.” 

Gigi’s face drops. 

“Are you serious?”

“Unfortunately.” 

“ _ Fuck _ ,” Gigi hisses. “What’s everyone saying?”

“Well, nothing good.”

“Obviously. Does everyone believe her?”

Jackie nods solemnly. “Some of them even said that they suspected it. Jan’s trying to do damage control downstairs, but…” Jackie’s voice trails off. 

“There’s not a lot that can be said, yeah, I get it,” Gigi says bitterly. 

“What do you want me to do?” Jackie asks. 

“Get everyone out. Please. I don’t care how.”

“Okay,” Jackie agrees, closing the door behind her as she murmurs an apology. 

“Gigi, I’m so sorry,” Crystal can see tears welling in her eyes and wraps her in a hug. 

“Not your fault,” Gigi cries into her shoulder. “I don’t know what to do. Nothing feels real.”

“It’s going to be okay,” Crystal attempts to assure her, even though she can’t completely convince herself of that. 

They sit on Gigi’s bed for what Crystal feels is an eternity, and Gigi’s tears soak through the fabric of the top Crystal wears. She feels terrible - she was the one making most of the noise - and wishes she could just take Gigi’s fear away. 

They hear another knock on the door, and Crystal jumps up to open it. This time, Jan stands in front of them. 

“Everyone’s gone. Jackie is driving a few people home, but she’ll be back.”

“Jan, what am I going to do?” Gigi cries. 

“I don’t know. We’ll figure it out. We’ll  _ all  _ figure it out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! It might not be my best work because I was rushing to get it published, but I hope you enjoyed it anyways. Hopefully I'll be able to update more consistently now that things seem to be slowing down for me.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, it's been a minute. I've been really busy and have had a serious case of writer's block, but hopefully I'll be back on track soon! Thank you for being patient!

Gigi buries her face into her pillow, not caring about the splotches of black mascara that will surely stain the baby pink, satin pillowcase. She can feel Crystal and Jan’s presence on either side of her, and tries to focus on the comforting feeling of Crystal’s fingertips dancing gently up and down her back instead of the growing pit of dread in her stomach. 

“Do you need anything, baby?” Crystal asks in a whisper. 

Gigi motions to move her head away from the pillow that stifles her cries, but when she opens her mouth to speak, she can’t find the words. She shakes her head, conveying that she doesn’t need anything, and presses her face back into the pillow. 

She can feel Crystal press her lips to the top of her head, and for some reason, the sweetness of the act makes her cry harder. 

Gigi hears a soft knock on the door. 

“Can I come in?” 

It’s Jackie; she’s back from driving the girls home and when she enters, Gigi can hear Jackie tell Jan something quietly that results in Jan exhaling sharply. 

“How’re you feeling, Gi?” Jackie asks, joining her girlfriend and Crystal on the blonde’s bed. 

Gigi manages to roll over and sit up and even though she’s sure that she looks like a complete trainwreck, she doesn’t even bother trying to wipe the smeared make-up off of her face. 

“Like I just got outed to the entire cheer squad,” Gigi deadpans. “Did they um, say anything to you in the car, Jackie?”

“Not anything that I think is a good idea to share right now,” Jackie answers. 

“I want to know. Do you think that Dahlia is going to tell the whole school?” Gigi attempts to compose herself. 

Jackie exhales sharply before answering. “She just called you some pretty terrible things. And I think she might, yeah. I’m sorry, Gi.” 

Gigi squeezes her eyes shut as a wave of fear shoots through her body; if Dahlia tells the whole school, her life is over. She can kiss every ounce of popularity and control she fought so hard to gain goodbye. She can forget having friends, or the nomination for prom queen she thought was all but guaranteed to her. To make things worse, Gigi knows that the respect of her squad is as good as gone already, and that there’s nothing she can do to get it back. It’s over. 

“Great,” Gigi spits bitterly. 

“Do you want us to give you some space?” Crystal asks after a moment passes. 

“No. No, please don’t leave,” Gigi reaches for Crystal’s hand and squeezes it. 

“We’ll be here as long as you need us to be,” Jan assures her friend. 

“Can we maybe try to go to bed? I just want this night to be over,” Gigi decides. 

“Of course, Jan and I will go grab our sleeping bags,” Jackie says, motioning for Jan to follow her downstairs. 

Once the door closes behind them, Gigi almost immediately throws herself into Crystal’s arms again. Gigi cries, the tears stinging her cheeks, and Crystal strokes her hair with a quiet promise that things will all be okay. 

Gigi wants to believe her more than anything in the world. 

Jackie and Jan emerge with their sleeping bags in hand, and spread them out on the carpeted floor next to Gigi’s bed.

“What time are your parents going to be home tomorrow, Geeg?” Jan asks as she snuggles into her girlfriend’s side. 

“I don’t know. Probably ten or eleven,” Gigi shrugs. 

“We should set an alarm,” Jackie adds. “Just in case.”

Gigi agrees, getting out of bed to stand in front of the alarm clock she has on her nightstand. She clicks a few buttons, setting the alarm for 9:30.

“All set,” Gigi informs the group.

She and Crystal pull down the bedsheets before she settles back into bed next to the curly-haired girl. Her head hits the pillow and she can feel Crystal draping her body across her, sighing contently. 

“Good night,” Crystal hums. “It’s all going to be okay. Maybe not now, maybe not even tomorrow, but it’s going to be okay.” 

Gigi reaches for Crystal’s hand and squeezes it. “Thank you, Cryssy. Sweet dreams.”

~

Gigi awakens to the loud beeping of her alarm. She can hear Crystal groan next to her, obviously unhappy to be awake at such an early hour on a weekend. 

Gigi is the first of the two of them to sit up and rub the sleep from her eyes.

“Good morning!” Jan and Jackie chirp. 

Gigi can tell that the pair has been awake for a while, judging by Jan’s grin and Jackie’s bright eyes. 

“Morning,” Gigi croaks out, her voice still hoarse with sleep. 

“How are you feeling?” Jackie checks. 

Gigi silently wishes she could have forgotten the events of the night before, or have woken up to realize it was one messed up nightmare. 

But neither are realities. She can’t push away the memory and the second she thinks about it too much, her stomach drops again. 

“Not great. I’m dreading Monday.”

“Me too,” Jan agrees. “I have no idea what to expect.”

“At least they won’t be attacking you,” Gigi says, an apologetic look crossing her face as she realizes that her tone probably came out harsher than she intended it to. 

“They will,” Jan says. 

“Huh?”

“I um, I might have let something slip about Jan and I last night. When the girls said something shitty about you in the car,” Jackie sheepishly explains. “I had a hard time holding my tongue.” 

“Are you okay? Why didn’t you say something last night?” Gigi questions, looking back and forth between Jan and Jackie with concern. 

“I knew you were really going through it. Honestly, I don’t think I care as much as I thought I would. I mean, my mom already knows and she doesn’t care, it’s not really even  _ that  _ big of a deal,” Jan pauses. “But I am pretty worried about what might be going around at school.” 

“Well, I guess we have the whole “safety in numbers” thing going for us,” Crystal stirs from her spot in the bed, holding herself up by her elbows and smiling sleepily at the group of girls. 

Gigi appreciates Crystal’s attempt to remain positive in spite of everything; if sunshine were a person, Gigi is sure that it would be her girlfriend. 

“So should we just pretend like none of this happened and hope for the best?” Jan asks. 

“Maybe. I mean, if we act like it wasn’t a big deal, they might just brush it off and forget about it,” Gigi considers. 

“I hate to be the buzzkill, but do you really think that they’re going to just let this go? I heard them talking, it doesn’t seem like anyone is going to want to just let bygones be bygones,” Jackie adds. 

“You still haven’t told me  _ what  _ they said, Jacks. I can handle it,” Gigi promises. 

Jackie glances over at a shrugging Jan before inhaling deeply. 

“Fine. Um, they said a few things but the big ones were that they didn’t want a  _ dyke _ ,” Jackie pauses to cringe at the word, “as squad captain and that they were going to tell the coach to get you removed. And Jan, too. They think you’re going to try and uh,  _ turn them _ and that you’ve been looking at them in the locker rooms.”

Gigi isn’t surprised by the general ignorance of the girls on her squad. She hadn’t expected anything less from most of them. 

“Do you think that they’re serious?” Gigi asks. 

Jackie nods. “Unfortunately. I don’t know how your coach is going to take it, but I’d be ready for it.” 

“I think I’m just going to quit. It isn’t worth the drama, and even if coach decides to keep us on, I can’t see it going well. Maybe you should do the same thing, Gi.” 

“I don’t know,” Gigi replies with hesitation. “I’ve worked really hard, it’s kind of all I have. My parents would have so many questions.”

“You can just see how it all goes on Monday,” Crystal chimes in. “It might be okay. It might not. You never know until it happens.”

“And no matter what, we all have each other. Gosh, that was cliché,”  Jackie grins. 

“Anyone in the mood for some coffee?” Gigi changes the subject. 

“I could definitely go for a cup,” Crystal answers quickly. 

“I second that,” Jackie nods. 

The group stands, filing out of Gigi’s bedroom door. Gigi knows her parents have yet to arrive home. She’s sure that she would have heard them coming up the stairs if they were back. Part of her hopes she can get her friends and girlfriend out before they’re back; if everyone is gone, she won’t have to explain why all but three of her friends are gone. 

“Geeg, where are your coffee mugs?” Jan asks as Gigi loads the coffee maker with coffee grounds. 

“The cupboard to the far right! Thanks, Jan.”

The kitchen is silent and the air feels heavy. Regardless of the attempted positive attitudes being outwardly expressed, Gigi knows that some part of each girl is as terrified as she is - even if they won’t say it. 

Gigi evenly pours the hot, brown liquid into the four coffee mugs Jan has set out. Jackie and Crystal take their coffee black, and Gigi dumps a generous amount of sweetener into both her mug and Jan’s. 

“Any fun plans for the day?” Jan is the one to break the silence. 

“Studying,” Jackie hums, sipping her coffee. 

“Probably just hanging out at home, and eating leftover candy,” Crystal adds. 

“Absolutely nothing,” Gigi responds. “Hiding in my room from my parents.”

“Riveting,” Crystal jokes, nudging Gigi and kissing her on the cheek. 

“What time are your parents going to get back, Gi?” Jan wonders aloud. 

“I think pretty soon, but I really don’t know.”

“I think we should all head out before they get back,” Jan declares.

“Me too,” Jackie coincides. “I should probably head out soon to get started on the studying, anyways. I have a test on Monday.”

“Crystal, do you need a ride home? I can totally drop you off,” Jan offers. 

“That’d be great,” Crystal nods. 

Silence permeates the room as empty coffee mugs are set back down on the kitchen counter and Crystal, Jackie, and Jan hurriedly gather their things. Gigi wishes that this Saturday morning was like any other post-slumber party morning; laughter, sugary breakfast food, playful jokes, and affectionate glazes exchanged with Crystal. 

Instead, it’s tense and everything feels tentative; the coffee left a bitter taste behind in Gigi’s mouth despite the excess of sweetener she dumped in it, she can tell her friends are scared for her, and Crystal’s touches feel concerned rather than light and carefree. 

Despite it all, Gigi kisses Crystal at the doorstep and waves goodbye to her friends as they drive away. She can’t manage to shake the feeling that absolutely everything has changed, and and all that Gigi can find the energy to do is collapse back into her bed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading! This is unfortunately what I would consider a "filler" chapter, but chapter eleven will be packed full of drama. I hate to make a promise about when the next update will happen, but I would expect it to be posted sometime between tomorrow and Sunday evening. I'm officially done with college for the summer, so that will free up my schedule for more frequent updating.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the product of caffeine-fueled brainpower, was wrote in less than four hours, and is completely un-betaed, so I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors!   
> TW for some homophobic language and actions - nothing super intense, but just wanted to give everyone a heads up.

When Crystal’s mom shakes her awake on Monday morning, she almost considers feigning illness to get out of going to school. 

But she hasn’t heard from Gigi since she left on Saturday, and if nothing else, Crystal knows that her girlfriend needs her support. Jan, too, would likely be facing circumstances similar to Gigi’s and Crystal couldn’t, in good conscience, not show up for her. 

Unlike Jan and Gigi, Crystal knew that she and Jackie didn’t have far to fall on the social ladder: they were basically at ground zero before they’d been outed and it wasn’t like they had a lot to lose in the first place. 

Gigi and Jan were both having to face the possibility of leaving the squad, and would probably be ruthlessly tormented by their former teammates even after they were no longer involved.

“Cryssy, wake up,” her mom says for the second time. 

This time, Crystal stirs from her spot in the bed with a groan, and makes what she is sure is an inhuman noise to alert her mom that she is awake. 

The day feels heavy already; Crystal can’t be bothered to do more than throw on a pair of light-wash jeans and a baggy t-shirt. She tosses her hair up into a bun, not wanting to deal with attempting to detangle the curly mess, and is quick to head out the door when she realizes Jackie is in her driveway. 

“Where’s Jan?” Crystal asks almost immediately after settling into the front seat. 

“She uh, went with Gigi today. I think they might be trying to do damage control. You know, talk to the coach before anyone else does,” Jackie explains. 

“Have you heard much from either of them this weekend?” Crystal questions. 

Jackie shakes her head. “No. I mean, a little bit from Jan - she’s not taking it too hard, surprisingly - but nothing from Gigi. I figured they might be talking to each other.”

Crystal understands. The two blondes are in the same boat, and Gigi probably doesn’t know how to express exactly what she’s feeling to Crystal. 

“I’m really worried about both of them,” Crystal confides in her friend. “I mean, I’m kind of nervous just for myself, I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”

“Me too,” Jackie agrees. “We were always so careful, I can’t believe I just blurted it out…”

It occurs to Crystal that Jackie might be feeling guilty about having publicly declared her relationship with Jan. 

“Hey, you were upset. I might have done the same had I been the one to hear everything they said,” Crystal attempts to comfort her. 

“Yeah, I just… I don’t know. Jan seems to be taking it so well, but I can’t help thinking that she’s secretly angry with me. Or hurt. Or scared. And it’s my fault that they know about her now.”

Jackie has spent countless hours comforting Crystal, walking her through understanding her own sexuality and turmoils. Crystal has decided it’s time for her to return the favor to her friend. 

“You can’t blame yourself. What’s done is done, and honestly, it doesn’t seem like Jan could “secretly” have any kind of feeling - she kind of puts it all out there, doesn’t she?”

Jackie looks contemplatively at the road before nodding affirmatively, “You’re right. It just seems so wrong of me to have told everyone _ for  _ her. Coming out should have been something she got to do on her own terms.”

“Of course it should have been, but she knows you didn’t do it maliciously. Even if she’s bothered, I’m sure she understands. When everything has calmed down, you should talk to her about it, Jacks. If nothing else, it will make you both feel better,” Crystal advises. 

“I will. I just hope this all ends soon, for everyone involved.”

“Me too.”

They drive silently for the rest of the way to school, with the music on low and the windows rolled up. Crystal can’t shake the feeling in her stomach that  _ something  _ is going to happen - she knows she’s probably right and that for once, her anxiety isn’t what’s controlling her thinking. Realistically, the day won’t pass by without an incident of some sort. It’s going to just be a matter of  _ how bad  _ said incident will affect the girls. 

When Jackie pulls into a parking spot, Crystal reminds her to breathe before stepping out of the car. Remaining entirely calm doesn’t seem possible, but reducing Jackie’s obvious nervousness is. 

Jackie inhales once, twice, three times, and then steps out of the car. Crystal follows. 

There’s nothing out of the ordinary about the day; it’s sunny in November, but it’s California and Crystal has come to expect that. The sky is blue, maybe a tad bit cloudier than usual, and the beams down on the pavement. Other teenagers are getting out of their cars jointly, laughing and exchanging stories of the Halloween weekend. 

“We got this,” Crystal reminds Jackie as they begin to walk towards the entrance of the school. 

“I know. I just hope Jan and Geeg do, too.” 

Crystal is the first to see two blondes sitting on a bench outside of the gate that leads into the campus. She nudges Jackie, who doesn’t quite understand what Crystal is attempting to convey at first, until she hears the other girl exhale sharply. 

Crystal doesn’t think that their presence outside of the school could possibly be a good sign. 

Maybe it’s Crystal’s almost  _ painfully  _ optimistic mindset, but when she and Jackie are within an arm's reach of their respective girlfriends, Crystal asks how everything went. 

She sees the sullen look on Jan’s face, and the remnants of streaked mascara down Gigi’s cheeks, but still hopes for the best. 

“We quit,” Jan says, her voice lacking its typical peppiness. “It’s not worth it.” 

“I’m so sorry, baby,” Jackie wraps Jan in a hug, and the younger girl melts into her. 

“Gi, what’s going through your head?” Crystal checks in. 

“Everything. Nothing. I don’t know,” Gigi whimpers. “It’s all gone. Everything I worked for, all of my middle and high school career. No more varsity cheer captain, no more prom queen, no more being the pretty, popular girl. It’s gone.”

“You’re so much more than that,” Crystal reminds her quietly.

Gigi rapidly shakes her head. “No. No, I’m really not, Crystal. I’m not like you. I’m not known for being  _ nice _ . I’m not good at art stuff. I’m barely passing my academic classes. My parents are practically going to  _ disown  _ me when they find out that I’m off the squad, let alone if they find out I’m a  _ lesbian  _ now.” 

“Geeg, listen to me. You’re incredible. You’re one of the most interesting people I know, you have so much compassion in your heart, and your intelligence extends beyond the classroom. Maybe this was all a blessing in disguise. You can show everyone the version of you that the three of us see, not what you feel like you have to be, this could be a good-”

“Stop,” Gigi interrupts Crystal. “It’s not a good thing. It’s just - it’s fucking not, Crystal. This isn’t something I can just slap a smiley face over and let go. This is my  _ life _ .”

“Geeg, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I need to go. I think… we need to just, I don’t know, take a break. I can’t do this right now. I’ll talk to you later.”

Crystal watches her walk off, her heart sinking in her chest. 

“Hey,” Jackie places a hand on Crystal’s shoulder. “Just give her a minute, trust me. She’s just scared.”

“It’s not super cool of her, but she’ll apologize later. I promise,” Jan adds in.

“She seems pretty peeved,” Crystal murmurs.

Tears threaten to escape her eyes, but she tilts her head back slightly to keep them from falling. She can feel Jackie and Jan jointly wrapping their arms around her, enveloping her in a hug. 

“It’s going to be okay,” Jan comforts again.   
  
“You shouldn’t be the one having to tell me that,” Crystal’s voice cracks with emotion. “You’re the one who just had to give up everything, too.”

“Cheer wasn’t even close to my everything,” Jan shrugs. “I have you guys. I have a supportive mom. I have school. I have more than all of this. And Gigi does too, she just doesn’t know it yet.”

~

Gigi isn’t in first period art with Jackie and Crystal. They sit next to each other, and Crystal bounces her knee nervously hoping that the blonde bursts through the door late, as usual. 

But she doesn’t. 

Crystal can’t remember a single thing Ms. Velour said, and Jackie doesn’t seem to be her usual studious self, either. 

“Where do you think she is?” Crystal asks, assuming Jackie might have some insight. 

“I really don’t know. When she was upset before, she’d always go into the cheer locker rooms and just sit on the benches in there to get away from everything. But…” Jackie trails off. 

“Would Jan be with her?”

“I don’t know. Jan and I are meeting up after next period, so I can ask,” Jackie offers sympathetically. 

Crystal nods appreciatively. “Thanks. I think I might skip my next class and look for her.”

“She probably doesn’t want to be found.”

“She can tell me off again, I just need to know that she’s okay,” Crystal explains, and Jackie gives her a knowing look before they part. 

Crystal still feels lost on the campus she’s been roaming around on for several months, and for once she wishes she would have gotten to know the layout better. 

She knows that the former cheerleader isn’t anywhere near the art building - she looked around before she and Jackie headed away from it - and doesn’t know many other hiding places around campus. 

She checks through a multitude of corridors and hallways, and even jogs to the room where she knows Gigi’s next class is supposed to be in. She sticks her head inside, gleaning strange looks from the other students, and waits outside until ten minutes after the bell has rang. 

Crystal can’t find a sign of her girlfriend anywhere and she’s officially at a loss. 

The thought strikes her that maybe she might have left campus altogether, possibly sneaking off under the guise of being sick or having a family emergency. 

Gigi’s magenta convertible is unmistakable, so Crystal sneaks into the parking lot past the security guard. 

Sure enough, Crystal can see the car in the far back, sticking out like a sore thumb amongst all of the whites and blacks and dark blues. She approaches it, wondering if Gigi is sitting inside - the roof of the car is on, and Crystal can’t tell from afar. 

It’s only when she’s less than ten feet away that she sees it. 

In dark, bold letters, it screams at her. 

_ DYKE. _

Crystal’s stomach drops and she feels sick. She hopes Gigi hasn’t seen it yet. 

Crystal quickens her pace until she’s able to look through the windows of the car. 

Gigi isn’t inside, and Crystal is thankful. It pains her to know that her girlfriend is going to  _ have  _ to see it eventually. 

All that she can think to do is tell Jackie and Jan; unsurprisingly, Crystal notices that the same words adorn the exterior of Jackie’s car on her way back inside.

Crystal waits for Jackie to get out of her class outside of the door. The minutes tick by at an agonizingly slow pace, but soon, the bell rings and students flood out. 

Jackie clearly notices that something is wrong the second she sees Crystal. 

“What happened?”

“Um, your cars - yours and Gigi’s - the word dyke, it’s spray painted on them,” Crystal explains incoherently. 

It isn’t her car, but the words sting nonetheless. 

“Oh my god.”

“I’m sorry,” Crystal says, knowing that even though Jackie is out at school, her parents are unaware and unaccepting. 

“Does Gigi know?”

“No. I couldn’t find her anywhere.”

Jackie composes herself and tells Crystal that they need to find Jan. 

Jan is waiting for them at a table, and stands as soon as she sees the pair. 

“Gigi got called into the office. I was with her when they called her in,” Jan informs them without a formal greeting. 

“Shit.”

“Do you know why?” Crystal asks. 

“No. But, I do know that her parents got called. I don’t think it’s good.”

“We should go check on her,” Crystal pleads. 

“I don’t think that they’re going to let us in,” Jackie explains. 

“Well, I’m going to try,” Crystal is determined. 

She hurries into the office, garnering questionable stares from office attendants. She can see Gigi - and two adults - sitting in an office with a partially opened door. 

“Where are you going?” someone finally attempts to stop her. 

“I-I uh, need to talk to um,” Crystal’s eyes wander the office, scanning the room for a name listed on a door or a desk placard, any name.

“Who?”

Crystal is at a loss for words. She’s a bad liar, and her mind is starting to blank. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know who you’re supposed to talk to?”

A streak of panic crosses Crystal’s mind, and when Gigi’s name loudly escapes her throat, she realizes she’s made a terrible mistake. 

_ Who yells in a fucking office? _

A woman with black hair exits the office Gigi is sitting in - Crystal doesn’t recognize her, but she can make out the name “Visage” on her nametag. 

“Do you need something?” the woman glares. 

“I’m, well, no, I don’t need anything, I just,” Crystal splutters, “Gigi Goode?”

“Crystal?” Gigi stands behind the woman. 

“Oh,” Ms. Visage says in a flat tone. “You need to leave before you get suspended, too. Go.” 

“ _ Suspended _ ? For  _ what _ ?” Crystal is in shock. 

“Go. Or I can get your parents on the phone to have this discussion with them.”

Crystal looks at Gigi sympathetically, but knows that there’s nothing she can do. She turns away, heart thudding in her chest. 

~

Crystal takes the bus home early. She doesn’t wait to see Jackie or Jan, she wants to wait at home by the phone in case a call comes in from Gigi’s number. 

When five o’clock rolls around, it still hasn’t. 

And when Crystal’s mother comes home thirty minutes later, yelling for Crystal to come downstairs in an upset tone, she knows it can’t be good. 

“I got a call today, from your school. Any reason you skipped all but one class?”

“No,” Crystal shrugs. “I just wanted to,” she lies. 

“Really?” her mom raises an eyebrow. “It has nothing to do with the  _ appearance  _ you made in the disciplinary office today?”

Crystal wants to shrivel up into nothing and disappear, especially under the heated look her mother is giving her. 

“Maybe.”

“Would you enlighten me? Because what  _ I  _ heard went on today, and what you did at school, does  _ not  _ sound like the daughter I raised.”

“Gigi was in trouble. There was a really crappy word on her car. I was worried,” Crystal attempts to explain without giving too much away. 

“Crystal, I’m giving you a chance to be completely honest with me. I still trust you. Don’t break that.”

Her heart sinks, and she realizes she’s going to have to explain. 

“So, this weekend, um, I might have lied about just sleeping over with Jackie.”

Her mom releases an exasperated sigh. “Continue.”

“Gigi had all of her friends over. I swear. I know you didn’t want me to stay over with her again, but I didn’t want to be left out, so I lied. I’m sorry. Anyways, Gigi and I were doing some  _ things  _ we probably shouldn’t have been, and someone found out, and then told everyone.”

“And?”

“And today, Gigi and Jan quit cheer because the girls were so mean, I guess. I found the word dyke,” Crystal cringes, and sees her mother flinch, “spray painted on Gigi’s car. It was on Jackie’s, too. Gigi had disappeared all morning, so I was worried, and when Jan told me she was called into the office, I went in. She got suspended.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes, I swear,” Crystal promises. “That’s literally it.”

“I was informed that there might have been some... _ inappropriate _ interactions between you and Gigi at school.” 

“What?” Crystal wonders if anyone saw them in the car weeks ago. 

“A student came forward saying they saw you and Gigi kiss on campus,” her mom elaborates. 

It’s possible that someone saw them; but if it was just a kiss, Crystal didn’t understand why Gigi was getting suspended. 

“I mean, we have. But every couple kisses on campus, and we’re always discreet. It’s not like being gay is  _ cool _ , mom.”

“They said it looked like Gigi instigated it. That’s why she’s being suspended, and not you.” 

“That’s stupid,” Crystal groans. 

“I don’t disagree, despite how I might feel about this whole…  _ situation _ . But,” Crystal’s mom warns, “I don’t want to hear about you being disruptive and rude. And I don’t appreciate being lied to.”

“I’m sorry.”

They sit in silence before Crystal’s mom clears the air.

“I informed the school that I thought that what they were doing was, frankly, homophobic.”

Crystal is shocked with her mother’s declaration, but just nods.

“I have my thoughts on all of this, but I feel for you. I feel for Gigi. You’re good girls, regardless of all of this.”

“Thanks, mom,” Crystal smiles sadly. 

~

It’s past eleven, and Crystal is asleep before a knock on her bedroom door awakens her. 

“Cryssy, Gigi is downstairs,” her mom’s raspy, sleep-laced voice echoes. 

Crystal is out of bed the second she hears her girlfriend’s name, and opens the door. 

“What?”

“Gigi is downstairs,” her mother repeats. “I told her she could stay here tonight.  _ On your floor _ , with the door  _ open _ ,” she emphasizes. 

“Um, okay?” Crystal isn’t about to complain, and assumes that she got into a heated argument with her parents over the events of the day. 

“She got kicked out. She doesn’t have anywhere to go. We’re going to need to have a talk in the morning, all of us. Including your father.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and sticking with me as I get back to updating regularly! I really appreciate any and all feedback that y'all have. 💗  
> If you want to, feel free to follow my Tumblr @ lilacdyke!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been quite a while since I've updated, but I'm starting to get motivated to write more! As an apology for making you all wait so long, I'll have chapter thirteen up in about two hours. Thanks for reading!

Crystal doesn’t ask Gigi any questions when the blonde walks through the door; the taller girl’s complexion is even more pale than usual and when Crystal attempts to wrap her in a hug, Gigi’s arms hang limply at her side. Crystal begins to construct a makeshift bed on the floor in silence, knowing that she would face consequences in the morning from her mother if she and Gigi ended up accidentally falling asleep next to each other. She spreads two sleeping bags and several blankets on the floor before grabbing a pillow from her own bed and tossing it down onto the heap of blankets. 

“Hey Geeg, I’m going to sleep on the floor tonight, okay?” Crystal says, gently touching her girlfriend’s arm. 

“You don’t have to,” Gigi whispers. 

“I know I don’t have to, I want to,” Crystal insists as she begins to rifle through her dresser in an attempt to find Gigi a pair of pajamas. 

“Are you sure?”

“Of course,” Crystal replies, handing Gigi a pair of sweatpants and a tank top. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, I think… I think I just want to go to bed. Is it okay if we just go to bed?”

“Yeah, of course we can,” Crystal nods sympathetically.

Gigi hurriedly changes into Crystal’s pajamas and buries herself under the warmth of the duvet covers. Crystal watches her from the floor as she shifts around in an attempt to make herself comfortable. Her heart aches for Gigi - even though she doesn’t know the details of what happened prior to her arrival, she can’t imagine a way that the situation was remotely easy to deal with. Her own coming out hadn’t exactly been a dream experience, but at least it didn’t culminate in her own mother throwing her out. 

Crystal begins to drift off, her mind clouded with exhaustion, when she hears Gigi sniffling. 

“Gi, are you crying?” Crystal croaks out, her voice thick with sleep. 

“No,” Gigi obviously lies. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk?”

“Can you hold me?” Gigi questions. “I know your mom doesn’t want us in the same bed, but I really need you to hold me. Just for a few minutes.”

Crystal doesn’t have to think about it; wordlessly, she stands and crawls into bed next to the other girl.

Gigi immediately curls around Crystal, resting her head on the curly haired girl’s chest as tears trickle slowly down her cheeks. As much as Crystal wants to say something - anything - that will help, she knows there’s nothing that can be done. So, she runs her fingers through Gigi’s hair, and presses gentle kisses into her forehead until the tears stop and her breathing becomes less shallow. 

~

Crystal knows she shouldn’t have allowed herself to fall asleep in the bed. Her mom said it, with no hesitation, yet she somehow finds herself stirring awake to the sound of her mother coughing loudly to announce her presence. 

“Mom, I’m sorry, I-”

“It’s fine, Cryssy,” her mom sighs. “Your father is waiting for you downstairs.”

“Did you tell him?” she asks in a hushed tone, not wanting to awaken Gigi.

“No.”

Crystal inhales deeply before sneaking out from under Gigi’s arms, mentally preparing herself for the coming out conversation she’s about to have with her dad. 

“Do you want me there?” her mom asks once the two are outside of Crystal’s room in the hallway. 

“I mean, I don’t know,” Crystal considers it. “I guess not? I mean, I don’t think he’s going to be that mad, right?”

Her mom just shrugs. “I wouldn’t think so, sweetie.” 

“Okay,” Crystal nods. “I’ll let you know if I need you, I guess?”

Crystal mindlessly finds her way to the kitchen, unsure of how to start the discussion. Even though her mother witnessing her makeout session with Gigi was nothing less than a completely mortifying experience, it meant that she at least didn’t have to come up with a clever way to approach the situation. 

“Good morning,” Crystal says as she sits down next to her dad at the kitchen table. 

He’s sipping his coffee and flipping through the newspaper before he peers up at her. 

“You’re up early, even for a school morning, kiddo.”

“I - uh, yeah,” Crystal splutters awkwardly as she mindlessly twiddles her thumbs. 

They sit in a temporary silence before her dad speaks again. 

“Any reason you’re just sitting here, Cryssy? Not that I mind, but shouldn’t you be getting ready or something?” her dad crooks an eyebrow. 

“Um, I need to tell you something, I think.”

“I’m all ears,” he folds up the newspaper, shifting his focus to Crystal. 

“You know Gigi?”

He nods. 

“Well, she’s staying here, or, uh, she did last night and she might for a while, I don’t really know,” Crystal rambles. 

“Your mom told me this morning. That’s fine with me, she’s a good kid.”

“Well, do you know why she’s staying?” Crystal asks, hoping to finally broach the subject. 

“I believe so,” he replies. 

“She’s, you know, she’s… gay.”

“I  _ do  _ know that, yes.”

“Um, me too, I’m… I’m gay, too. And Gigi and I are sort of, you know, dating or whatever. I don’t know. Mom wanted me to talk to you, I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner-” Crystal is cut off. 

“Does she treat you right?”

Crystal is taken back by the question, but resoundingly affirms that Gigi does.

“And she makes you happy?”

“Very,” Crystal shakes her head in confirmation.

“Well, that’s all that really matters at the end of the day, isn’t it?” 

“I… yeah, I guess it is,” Crystal pauses. “Are you still okay with her staying here? If mom is, at least?”

“Of course. She’s always welcome here.”

“Okay, uh, cool,” Crystal stands up. “Thanks, dad.”

“Have a great day, and thank you for telling me,” he replies, picking up his newspaper nonchalantly. 

Crystal’s heart is still beating out of her chest by the time she walks up the stairs and into her room. Gigi is still soundly asleep, and Crystal attempts to be as quiet as she can while she fumbles through her closet looking for an outfit. She settles on a pair of jeans - the weather is getting colder, anyways - and a lightweight sweater.

Crystal elects to change in her parents’ room, hoping Gigi will be able to sleep in - after the night she had, she deserves it. Her mom knocks on the door shortly after she finishes changing, and Crystal opens it. 

“Your dad says you talked.”

“He said Gigi’s allowed to stay, if you’re okay with it,” Crystal informs her. “I don’t think he really cares that much about the gay thing.”

“He doesn’t, especially after last night. I think he’s more confused about how any parent could throw out their child than your sexuality.”

“I’m really thankful for you and dad,” Crystal hugs her mom tightly. “I know it’s not what you expected, but thank you for not, you know, doing what they did.”

“That thought never crossed my mind, Cryssy. It’s not something you need to thank me for, you’re our  _ daughter _ .”

“Could you drive me to school today? I don’t think Jackie is going to be feeling up to coming by this morning,” Crystal changes the subject. 

“Of course,” her mom nods. “Do you want to wake up Gigi before you go?”

“No, I think she needs her sleep. I’m going to leave her a note, though,” Crystal decides. “I feel bad that she got suspended and not me.”

“You’re lucky that you  _ didn’t  _ get suspended after the stunt you pulled in the office.”

“I know, I know, it just… it sucks, I mean, look at what happened because of this stupid suspension. I kind of wish it would have been me, so Geeg didn’t have to go through this,” Crystal explains. 

“Don’t you think they would have found out eventually, one way or another?” her mother points out.

“I guess, yeah, but maybe not like this, and maybe not when she was still living with them. It’s so unfair.”

“It is, but I told her that she’s welcome as long as she needs a place to stay. Maybe her parents will come around, honey.”

“I hope they do,” Crystal agrees solemnly. 

~

Walking through the gates of her school doesn’t feel the same without Gigi.

When Crystal sees Jackie and Jan, who are both full of questions and concern, she can barely bring herself to explain the situation. It isn’t hers to explain, so she doesn’t tell them everything, but she  _ does  _ tell them that Gigi is indefinitely staying at her house. 

“Is she okay?” Jackie asks after a temporary moment of silence. 

“We haven’t really talked about it, honestly,” Crystal informs her. “I think she will be, eventually.” 

“Do you think she’d want to see us after school today? Jackie and I could pick up snacks and we could have a girl’s night,” Jan poses. 

“Maybe, but I should probably ask her first,” Crystal tells the pair. “I don’t know if she’ll be up to seeing anyone.”

“That’s fine, you can just call me later and let me know.” 

The rest of the day inches by more slowly than Crystal would like - time is at a standstill. She has no way of knowing if Gigi is okay, and she spends the majority of her time in class watching minutes tick by on the clock. When the bell rings at the end of sixth period, Crystal rushes towards the parking lot and waits for Jackie by her car. 

The car ride is silent for once, and when Jackie pulls up to the curb outside of Crystal’s house, Crystal quickly thanks her for the ride and rushes through her door. 

Crystal makes her way upstairs, sure that Gigi has not left the confines of her room, and knocks twice before she opens her door. 

Gigi is curled up on Crystal’s bed, flipping through a large black binder that Crystal recognizes as her art portfolio. 

“Oh, hey,” Gigi smiles softly, shutting the binder. “Sorry, I saw this sitting on your shelf and was really curious. I should have asked first.” 

“Don’t worry about it!” Crystal assures. 

“You are  _ so  _ talented. I don’t know if I could ever create anything like this,” Gigi compliments.   
  
“Thank you,” Crystal is flattered by the praise, “It’s what I applied to schools with a few months ago, so I hope they have the same reaction.”

Crystal sits down next to her girlfriend, wrapping her in a hug. Gigi sighs. 

“I can’t believe they kicked me out.”

“That makes two of us. Can I ask what happened?” Crystal questions tentatively. 

Gigi nods. 

“Uh, someone saw us kiss, one of the cheer girls, and they told the office that I was like, basically all over you. I got called in, they suspended me because I threatened her, and my parents got called. My mom picked me up, she said she wasn’t happy but we could talk later, so I went to my room. I fell asleep, and when my dad got home, he woke me up and told me to get my shit and get out.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

The pair sit in silence, thinking through the situation.

“Do you think that they’ll change their minds about all of this?” Crystal wonders. 

“I could see my mom breaking, but probably not my dad, so I don’t really know.”

“How long are you suspended for?” 

“Three days, but I really don’t want to go back,” Gigi grimaces. 

“I’m sure my mom already told you, but you’re allowed to stay here until you don’t need to anymore,” Crystal tries to comfort her girlfriend. 

“She did, yeah. I just wish none of this was happening. It’s a lot.”

“I’m here for you, Geeg. Seriously, whatever you need, okay?” Crystal presses a kiss to her cheek. 

“Thank you,” Gigi whispers. 

The tender moment is interrupted by a ringing phone. 

“One second,” Crystal stands, making her way over to the phone on her dresser. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Jan! We were just wondering if Gigi wants us to come over?”

“Let me ask,” Crystal replies, looking towards Gigi. “Hey, do you want Jackie and Jan to come over? They’ll bring snacks, but there’s no pressure if you’re not feeling up for it.” 

Gigi nods in confirmation. 

“Yeah, she’s feeling up for it! We’ll see you soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a bit of a filler chapter, and it's a bit shorter than usual, but the next one will be more eventful and longer! :-)


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter, posted just a few hours after chapter twelve, as promised! I'll try to be more on top of updating!

It’s December first; Gigi has been living at Crystal’s house for almost a full month, and Crystal can’t help but think that everything is going perfectly, especially when she considers the circumstances Gigi moved in under. 

They wake up next to each other every morning - or  _ almost  _ every morning, because some nights, Crystal winds up on the couch as per the many requests of her mother - and they fall asleep next to each other every night. They make breakfast together, start a tradition of packing each other’s lunches, and study together. They have movie nights, go on midnight drives, share inside jokes, and still help Crystal’s mother in the kitchen together. They do mundane, ordinary things together, and Crystal finds joy in it all. 

Gigi has half of Crystal’s closet - and most of the storage space under her bed - and her own drawers. It’s all very domestic, considering they’re both only eighteen, but it works. Crystal is happy, and she thinks Gigi seems happy, too. They’ve undoubedtly grown closer to each other and even though Crystal makes  _ at least  _ two “u-haul lesbian” jokes per day, everything feels inexplicably perfect, regardless of the timing. 

Crystal is lost in these thoughts as she watches Gigi struggle to set up a Christmas tree in the living room through hooded eyes. 

Crystal’s parents  _ love  _ Christmas - and Crystal does, too - but it  _ definitely  _ wasn’t her idea to surprise them by setting up a cheap, artificial tree by the fireplace. Gigi is determined, even though it’s almost ten at night on a Tuesday, and Crystal finds the perplexed looks on her girlfriend’s face endearing. 

“What do you think?” Gigi asks, stepping back from the tree and looking at Crystal. 

Crystal shakes herself back into reality and glances at the tree; it’s less than five feet tall, and maybe a little bit crooked, but it’s adorned with fairy lights that twinkle and shiny garland. 

Crystal looks up at Gigi, with her long, blonde hair pulled into a messy ponytail and bundled up in red-and-green plaid pajamas, and smiles lazily. 

“I love you,” she says in a daze.

And then she  _ realizes  _ what she’s confessed. 

“I mean, shit, I love it.  _ It. _ The tree, I love it,” Crystal hurriedly explains. 

Gigi looks back at her like a deer in headlights, eyes open wide and mouth slightly agape.

“Yeah, it’s um, it’s pretty, uh, cool,” Gigi stutters. “I think I might be tired, we should go to bed, are you tired?” 

“Yeah,” Crystal replies, getting up off the couch. 

Gigi doesn’t seem like she wants to talk about it, and Crystal  _ definitely  _ doesn’t want to unpack why she said what she did. 

It’s not like Gigi to ignore anything, or to be so  _ awkward  _ about it, and Crystal tries to not let that make her paranoid. But she’s worried nonetheless, because of  _ course  _ she said “I love you” at the wrong time. 

They climb into bed, Gigi mumbles a quick “good night”, and Crystal kisses her on the forehead before they fall asleep. 

“Good morning,” Crystal whispers to the still sound-asleep girl next to her. 

“Mmm, five more minutes,” Gigi complains with a groan. 

“Geeg, we have to get up, we have school,” Crystal reminds her. 

She groans again, but stretches her arms and sits up.

“I’m up, I’m up,” she yawns. 

Gigi is always the one to want to sleep in out of the two of them. 

They have fallen into a simple morning routine; Crystal showers before Gigi wakes up, and then Gigi showers while Crystal gets ready. Gigi gets ready while Crystal rushes through the  _ one _ homework assignment she always seems to put off, and they make breakfast together. 

But today, Gigi hastily showers, throws on a simple pair of jeans and a sweater, and announces that she’s leaving early. 

Crystal can’t help but wonder if it has anything to do with what she said the previous night. 

The curly-haired girl suddenly realizes she has to find a ride to school, since hers is apparently avoiding her, and decides to call the one person she feels comfortable talking to about what happened.   
  
“Hey Jackie, I know it’s last minute, but can you pick me up today?”

“Of course! But what about Gigi? Is she sick or something?”

“Uh, no. I’ll explain when I see you. Thanks so much!” Crystal hangs up the phone. 

She feels stupid about the whole situation, and to make it worse, it doesn’t seem like Gigi is in the mood to talk about it. The worst part is, she’s not even sure if she could look Gigi in the eyes and tell her that it was a  _ genuine  _ accident and that she did not, in fact,  _ actually  _ love her. Crystal can’t help but think that there’s a chance - a big chance - that she does love Gigi. 

They’ve only been together officially for three months, but in those three months, they’d been through a year’s worth of drama together, spent almost every moment possible together, and had begun living together - even if it wasn’t for “traditional” reasons. 

That scares Crystal; she’s never loved anyone like that, and Gigi clearly doesn’t feel the same way. She doesn’t know what that means for their relationship, and she hopes Gigi doesn’t think things are moving too fast. 

When Jackie arrives, Crystal immediately tells her what happened. 

“I just… said it! I don’t know what made me do it, I said it and I think I might have actually meant it and now Gigi is acting weird, and who knows, maybe she hates me and wants to break up now and I just don’t really even know what to do!” Crystal exclaims. 

Jackie nods her head as she drives, trying to remain calm and logical. 

“You know, maybe she just didn’t know what to say. There’s always that.”

“When has Gigi  _ ever  _ not known what to say? And when does she avoid conflict and go completely silent?!”

“You just have to talk to her, Crystal. That’s the only thing that’s going to resolve this, unfortunately,” Jackie instructs. 

“When did you and Jan say “I love you” for the first time?” Crystal asks. 

Jackie pauses, racking her brain, before it hits her. 

“We said it on a camping trip with Jan’s mom,” Jackie beams. “The three of us were sharing a tent, so Jan and I snuck out one night to sit by the fire pits. I said it after she burned my s’more, and she kissed me before saying it back. We’d probably been together for about two months.”

“That’s sweet,” Crystal grins. “So three months  _ isn’t  _ too soon?”

“I don’t really think you can put a time cap on these things, to be honest,” Jackie hums. “I don’t think it’s too soon. But, I’m not Gigi - talk to her!”

~

Gigi acts normal when Crystal arrives at their first period art class. Things start to feel relaxed when they’re back to making jokes with Jackie and complaining about all of the end-of-the-year projects they’ve been assigned. 

That’s crushed when the first period bell rings, and Gigi pulls Crystal aside before they leave for the period. 

“Can we go on a drive tonight? I really think we need to talk. I’m not mad or anything,” Gigi says.    
  
“Yeah, uh, of course. Are you coming home after school?” Crystal questions. 

“No, I’m going to Jan’s for a bit. Does six o’clock work?”

“Yeah, perfect, I’ll just see you then,” Crystal tries her best to sound like she  _ isn’t  _ terrified and walks off. 

It was relatively normal for Gigi to not be home right after school. They’d talked about how they needed to have their own lives outside of each other, especially if they were going to be cohabitating - even if said cohabitation was out of necessity - so Crystal wasn’t excessively worried about that. 

But she was worried about what would happen during this talk, even if Gigi wasn’t mad. Just because she wasn’t mad didn’t mean she wasn’t freaked out or stressed or confused or sad. 

When lunchtime rolls around, Crystal doesn’t see Gigi sitting at their usual lunctable. 

“Hey girls,” Crystal sits down across from Jackie and Jan, “Has Geeg been by?”

They shake their heads in unison. 

“No, I don’t really know where she is,” Jan speaks. “Maybe she got stuck in a class late?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Crystal sighs. 

She doesn’t know if Jackie or Gigi have told Jan what happened yet, and Crystal definitely doesn’t want to explain her slip up for a second time that day, so she changes the subject. 

“Have you heard back from any colleges, Jackie?”

“Not yet, you?” Jackie responds between bites of her salad. 

“No, but I really hope I do soon. I just want to know where I’m going already.”

“I hear that,” Jackie agrees. “What’s your first choice?”

“The art program at NYU is pretty great, but it’s probably a long-shot.”  
  
“I think you could get in, Crys!” Jan chimes in, smiling.   
  
“I second that,” Jackie concludes. 

“I hope so,” Crystal tells them, “What about you? Any dream schools?”

“UCLA would be great,” Jackie’s face lights up immediately.

“You’re  _ totally  _ going to get in, baby,” Jan encourages. 

“Are you nervous?” Crystal inquires. 

“Sort of. I mean, I don’t really want to be too far away from home, especially because of this one,” she wraps her arm around Jan, eliciting a laugh from the blonde, “but I’m trying not to think too much about it.”

“I get that,” Crystal agrees.

They make small talk during the rest of lunch, and Crystal confirms that she and Jackie will meet by her car after school. The rest of the day speeds by; Crystal sleeps through her next class, and is only  _ kind of  _ terrified about her impending conversation with Gigi in several hours. 

When school is over, and Crystal makes her way to Jackie’s car, Crystal notices she’s already sitting inside. 

“So, Jan told me that Gigi said she apparently needs  _ advice  _ about something to do with a relationship,” Jackie says as soon as Crystal closes the door. 

“Do you think that’s a bad sign?” Crystal squeaks, her intense anxiety making a reappearance. 

“I don’t know, but I just thought I should give you a heads up. Did you talk to her?”

“She asked me to go on a drive and talk later - but she says she isn’t mad.”

“Hm, weird,” Jackie hums. 

“It’s very un-Gigi like,” Crystal notes. 

Crystal’s mind is buzzing the rest of the ride home. Part of her is convinced that Gigi might break up with her over this - she knows that it’s most likely her mind running wild, but she can’t shake the feeling. 

Jackie drops her off with a hug, and promises that if anything happens she will be available. 

Crystal has a little over two hours until Gigi is due home; she contemplates actually  _ doing  _ her homework, but decides against it in favor of turning up her radio as loud as she possibly can and painting until the shakiness in her hands goes away. 

~

Crystal is working on a somewhat abstract painting of the Los Angeles skyline - based on a blurry polaroid Gigi tacked to the wall - when she hears the door open behind her. 

She turns around, and of course, it’s Gigi. 

Crystal jumps up, cranking the volume ten notches down on her stereo. 

“Is it six already?” Crystal asks. 

“Not yet, it’s about half past five,” Gigi tells her. “I just got back early. Are you uh, ready to go?”

“Oh yeah, sure,” Crystal eagerly responds.

She moves the unfinished painting to the corner of her room and throws her paints and brushes haphazardly into a bucket. Sure, she’s still wearing her ugly, orange painting shirt with a pair of ratty, stained overalls, but this conversation with Gigi feels more important than changing. 

“Where are we going?” Crystal asks, disrupting the five minutes of silence that have passed since the drive began. 

“I don’t know yet,” Gigi doesn’t even speak in her direction. 

For once, Gigi has kept the roof of her convertible on, and Crystal is almost alarmed by it. She can always count on the sound of the wind to drown out her thoughts, but now, she’s forced to sit in the quietness with them. 

“Can we talk? You said we needed to talk,” Crystal’s nerves are getting the best of her, and she knows it. 

“I’m trying to figure out what to say,” Gigi says, her tone slightly biting. 

“Okay.”

They keep driving. Crystal doesn’t know how long it’s been, but they’ve been heading north for a while and trees are starting to pop up. It looks like they’re out of the city. 

“My dad used to take me here when I was a kid, we’d go up into the mountains,” Gigi recounts, seemingly reading Crystal’s mind. “I used to feel like I was a million miles away from Los Angeles. But it’s only forty-five minutes away, it just feels far. You know?” Gigi rambles. 

“Yeah, I get it,” Crystal takes in the scenery. If it had really been forty-five minutes, she hadn’t been able to tell. But the sun was starting to set, and there was no arguing that this highway didn’t look anything like the 101. 

“I think that’s kind of how I feel about us, too. Like, I think that there are certain…  _ milestones _ in our relationship that I thought were really far away, but it turns out, they might be closer than I thought,” Gigi elaborates nervously. 

“I mean, we  _ did  _ start living together after dating for less than three months, technically. That’s like, breaking some kind of lesbian u-haul record, right?” Crystal jokes in an attempt to lighten the mood. 

“Yeah,” Gigi starts, “But that’s not really what I’m talking about.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Gigi smacks her lips together - something that Crystal has observed Gigi do when she’s a bit on edge - before she inhales deeply. “I feel like you’re waiting for me to say something else, but I  _ know  _ you know what this is about and-”

“I’m sorry,” Crystal interrupts with her apology, “I didn’t mean to make things weird for you. I haven’t done this before, and it slipped out, and have I said that I’m sorry?”

“So you  _ don’t _ , then?” Gigi clarifies. 

“Don’t…” Crystal trails off. 

“Uh, love me.”

“Geeg, I-I-” Crystal is cut off this time. 

“I love you,” Gigi whispers. 

“ _ You do _ ?”

“I was about to say it back when you said it, but then you said you meant the tree, and I was scared,” Gigi explains, “I thought it was too soon, I don’t know. I didn’t mean to make you feel like you did something wrong.”

“I love you,” Crystal wishes she could pull Gigi in for a kiss right then and there, but they’re going up a mountain, so Crystal settles for kissing the back of Gigi’s hand. 

Soon, Gigi pulls the car over, parking on a dirt patch on the side of the road. Gigi tells her to get out, with claims of a pretty view and a spectacular sunset. Crystal can see the beginnings of a beautiful night, with city lights starting to light up the dark orange sky, but she’s really focused on the way Gigi’s eyes look at sunset. 

The second Gigi turns towards Crystal, the shorter girl pulls her into a gentle kiss and mumbles “I love you” into her lips. 

~

Gigi is rushing upstairs to the bathroom when they finally get home around nine. Crystal makes her way into the kitchen, where she begins absentmindedly flipping through the pile of mail her mom left on the counter. 

It’s all boring junkmail, and probably some bills. But when her fingers graze past a large, white and purple envelope, her heart speeds up. 

It’s from NYU. 

Crystal’s not sure if she’s ready to see what’s contained in it, but she rips it open anyways.

When she sees the word “CONGRATULATIONS” printed in bold, black lettering, it’s all she needs to know that she did it - she was accepted into NYU. 

She was going to study art, in New York City, at a  _ damn _ good school. She’d live in a shitty dorm or studio, but she would get to look down on the streets below her and see the skyline light up the city every night. It would be magical, she was sure. 

But New York City was across the country from Los Angeles - from Gigi - and that thought made Crystal’s heart plummet into her stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if NYU even has an arts program, but pretend it does for the sake of the story! Thanks so much for reading, any comments are always appreciated! :-)  
> If you want to follow me on Tumblr and talk about drag or writing, feel free to! @ lilacdyke


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